Hurricane Pilots

Flying into the largest storms on Earth is all in a day's work for pilots on a NASA mission to explore hurricanes.

It's a rather daunting job description: "Multi-engine aircraft pilot, substantial experience required, must be willing to fly into hurricanes."

But some pilots with NASA's Convection And Moisture Experiment (CAMEX-4) do exactly that. With eyes wide open they deliberately fly over, around, and even into the biggest storms on Earth.

These unusual aviators endure the dangers of flying through hurricanes in the hope that scientific data they collect will improve hurricane modelling and prediction, which in turn might help save property and lives. Instruments aboard the planes measure temperature, pressure, humidity, precipitation, wind speed, lightning and ice crystal sizes - providing scientists with a hard-won view of the inner workings of a hurricane.

"You pass through this build-up of clouds that literally fills the sky in front of you," said Gordon Fullerton, a highly decorated aviator and former astronaut who pilots a DC-8 aircraft into hurricanes targeted by the CAMEX-4 study.

"Entering the storm, we're faced with rotating bands of thunderstorms as we fly at about 35,000 feet. A hurricane is just a group of thunderstorms circulating around a point called the 'eye.' You can pass through the eye and experience a calm as you observe thunderstorms circling all around you," Fullerton said.

It may be true that the eye of the storm is cloudless and less windy than the rest of the tempest - but only someone like Fullerton with plenty of experience (and perhaps nerves of steel) could feel calm surrounded by most intense thunderstorms in the whole hurricane. It's a dangerous place to fly an airplane!

How do the pilots safely navigate these powerful hazards?

Visit Dommin's photo gallery for more such spectacular views or to learn more about the daring pilots who HurricaneHunters.compioneered the dangerous art of flying into great storms. This view, looking straight up through the eye of a hurricane, was captured by navigator Scott A. Dommin - one of the US Air Force's famous "Hurricane Hunters."

Simply looking out of the cockpit window is one way. Because a hurricane is a collection of thunderstorms, pilots can often visually spot the stronger storms and simply avoid them. For example, says Fullerton, "If I see a thunderstorm that climbs up to 60,000 ft., I can tell by its thickness and blackness that I don't want to go in there."