A P-3 research plane leaving its hangar at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
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A P-3 research plane leaving its hangar at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
Patrick Black/NASA
High in the great clouds, aboard a ship loaded with scientific instruments, Christian Nairy watched images flash on his computer screen. This high-resolution slideshow shows real-time images of cloud particles that have formed on the wings of a plane, and some of the ice crystals I’ve seen look like perfect snow.
“They’re amazing to look at. Especially when they pop up right in front of you on the screen, it’s amazing,” said Nairy, a Ph.D. student at the University of North Dakota.
He’s just one of the scientists who boarded a research plane earlier this month that flew out of NASA’s Wallops Facility in Virginia to travel through a winter storm — part of a research expedition called IMPACT, or the Microphysical Investigation and Precipitation Mission for the Atlantic coast-threatening storms.
During the raid mission, researchers inside the research plane were collecting large amounts of weather data from the radar equipment.
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During the raid mission, researchers inside the research plane were collecting large amounts of weather data from the radar equipment.
Erica McNamee/NASA
He asked what kind of information might better help weather forecasters predict whether winter weather would create treacherous conditions that would require schools to close, roads to close and flights to be cancelled.
Until this mission, which began in 2020 and ended on February 28, there hadn’t been a major airborne study of winter weather in the eastern United States in about 30 years, says Lynn McMurdie, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle.
“We’ve had some really good weather,” McMurdie said. “Whatever Mother Nature gives us, we’re going to fly in it. We’re going out and trying to get the whole range, from the big snow that’s stopping all business up and down the East Coast to ‘oh, this is just normal. The rain, what’s that got to do with you?’ “
The biggest storm he flew in was a blizzard in January 2022 that dumped about 2 feet of snow on parts of the Atlantic coast. “It was crazy,” recalls Nairy. “We hit some crazy madness on that flight.”
On January 29, 2022, a strong nor’easter brought blinding blizzard conditions to Boston and much of the eastern seaboard, with high winds spreading the force. As the storm dumped 2 feet of snow on the ground in some areas, scientists stood out, taking measurements from a research plane.
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On January 29, 2022, a strong nor’easter brought blinding blizzard conditions to Boston and much of the eastern seaboard, with high winds spreading the force. As the storm dumped 2 feet of snow on the ground in some areas, scientists stood out, taking measurements from a research plane.
Scott Eisen/Getty Images
This year, though, the eastern snows have been relatively difficult. “But you know, this is what we have, and we’re going to make the best of it. And I think we’ve got the best thing ever,” said McMurdie. “So there will be a lot of learning from all kinds of weather, even if you are not fond of beautiful snow.”
One of the goals of this project is to better understand the brilliant “snow bands” that frequently appear on winter maps of the eastern Rocky Mountains.
Scientists have known about these distinct radar patterns for two decades, but it’s still not clear how the bands form or what’s going on inside those clouds, McMurdie explains.
That’s why scientists when charting IMPACTS enter their flight paths straight through the storm bands.
A scientist sits in the cockpit and helps plan a flight through “snow bands” in the storm.
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A scientist sits in the cockpit and helps plan a flight through “snow bands” in the storm.
GSFC/NASA
Instruments mounted under the wing of a P-3 aircraft can directly sample cloud particles. Researchers in mid-plane can also launch drops, small probes that parachute down through the storm and send back data on things like temperature, pressure, relative humidity and wind speed.
Meanwhile, another research plane, the ER-2, often follows the same flight path, but at higher altitudes above 60,000 feet. The instrument also has information about the weather, above.
“I think what makes this especially special is that we have to coordinate these two aircraft,” said McMurdie, “and search this huge storm.”
One thing researchers hope to understand is the role of liquid water in cloudy weather. Under certain conditions, water can remain in liquid form down to minus 34 degrees Celsius — about minus 29 degrees Fahrenheit.
Small drops of this supercooled water sometimes stick to the snow crystals. “Imagine a beautiful snow, and then it has all these little spikes. It looks like a cheese boa, or something,” says McMurdie.
Images of the crystals sampled from the cloud are created by the instrument on board and transmitted to the researchers on the plane.
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Images of the crystals sampled from the cloud are created by the instrument on board and transmitted to the researchers on the plane.
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What they’ve seen so far, he says, suggests that this kind of water is an important aspect of snow calves, perhaps with more water content, more ice particles, and ultimately more snow on the ground.
The vast amount of data collected above, below and within this diverse range of winter weather should give meteorologists much to analyze in future years and hopefully incorporate into forecasting models, so that future weather reports can make better sense. what a storm it can be.
“I’m constantly amazed every time we go up and fly,” McMurdie said. “Everybody’s like, ‘Really? What’s going on there?’ “
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