News Article Release
Midshipmen Chase Hurricane with Air Force Hurricane Hunters
August 22, 2012
By Cmdr. Beth Sanabia
As Tropical Storm Ernesto churned westward through the Caribbean in early August, five Naval Academy midshipmen were working out of an airfield in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands to track the storm’s movement and measure the intensity of the winds around the center.
Midshipmen 1st Class Kyle Coffey, Topher Leiby, Lauren McCann, and Mary Cox, and Midshipman 2nd Class Ellen Deckinga joined the U.S. Air Force’s Hurricane Hunters aboard their WC-130J aircraft, flying into the storm and operating systems that measure the temperature of the ocean beneath the tropical storm.
This unique oceanographic aspect of the Hurricane Hunter mission has been in place for the past two years and is fulfilled primarily by Naval Academy midshipmen as part of the Oceanography Department’s TROPIC (Training and Research in Oceanic and Atmospheric Processes In Tropical Cyclones) internship.
The midshipmen reported aboard the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., in late July. Following a week of initial training on the Mobile Ocean Observing System, including an orientation flight over the Gulf of Mexico, the midshipmen deployed to St. Croix as part of the 53rd WRS team sent to investigate and track Tropical Storm Ernesto.
The midshipmen, broken into two teams on opposite shifts, flew eight missions into the storm and collected numerous observations of ocean temperature from the surface to nearly 800 meters deep. The ocean temperature data that the midshipmen collected and processed during each flight was sent to weather modeling and forecasting centers to help forecasters assess the impact of the ocean on the tropical storm’s intensity.
A primary focus of the TROPIC program is to provide midshipmen the opportunity to extend science beyond the classroom and to enable students to conduct hands-on scientific fieldwork answering critical questions about tropical storm development.
“During TROPIC, we were able to take the thoughts and ideas we learn about in the classroom and apply them to real life situations that will actually count for something down the road in the data we have gathered,” said Midshipman 1st Class Mary Cox. “Without a doubt, this is one of the coolest things I have ever done.”
Led by Capt. Bill Schulz and Cmdr. Beth Sanabia of the Naval Academy’s oceanography faculty, and 2012 graduate Ensign Ian Park, the five midshipmen will each undertake a research project in the upcoming academic year based on their hurricane hunting experience this summer.
