LA JOLLA, Calif. (KGTV) — A partnership between the United States Air Force, NOAA, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego is helping generate data that is improving the quality and accuracy of weather forecasts.
“Traditionally, weather models are pretty good days one through three," said Scripps meteorologist Sam Bartlett. "But we’re targeting improving those forecast models out a little further out so that folks who deal with water resources issues can have a little more heads up, a little more lead time to respond to any precipitation that’s coming.”
Bartlett is part of a team that meets at 6 am every morning in a conference room at the Scripps complex on the UCSD campus to plan flights from military bases in Northern California, Hawaii, and Guam. Scientists study weather conditions in the Pacific Ocean, figure out where additional data is needed, then work out flight plans. Air Force personnel are present in the room, helping coordinate. The crews then fly the planes into the atmospheric rivers, dropping tools to measure and collect data. That information helps meteorologists better forecast timing and potential precipitation of the storms a few days before the weather arrives on the West Coast of the United States.
“It is pretty crazy to think about in my job as a researcher here at UC San Diego and Scripps- we tell the Air Force where to fly," Bartlett said.
“I really like doing a job in the U.S. military that I can see having an immediate effect on friends, family, and the public," said Lt. Col. Mark Withee, who sometimes serves as a navigator on the flights and is currently an officer assigned to the team in La Jolla.
Before joining the Air Force Reserve 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, better known as the "Hurricane Hunters", Withee served on missions over Iraq and Afghanistan. As new technology began limiting the need for navigators on those flights, he found a new home with the Hurricane Hunters. “It’s a little different change of pace. It’s not bad. It’s an important part of getting the mission done," he said.
The Hurricane Hunters have been flying these missions in the Pacific during the winter since 2016. During the summer they shift into the Atlantic to do the same work.
