The Sensing Hazards with Operational Unmanned Technology (SHOUT) project, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Unmanned Aircraft Systems program, deployed the NASA Global Hawk UAS carrying a suite of meteorological sensors and deploying dropsondes during three research flights in February.

Twice in one week, four aircraft simultaneously flew the NOAA El Niño Rapid Response and SHOUT missions operating over a vast area of the eastern Pacific Ocean on Feb. 21 and 22. These coordinated flights consisted of two Air Force Reserve Command WC-130J aircraft from the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, which flew missions from Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, and Travis Air Force Base, Sacramento, California; a NOAA Aircraft Operations Center G-IV from Honolulu International; and a NASA Global Hawk High-Altitude, Long-Endurance (HALE) UAS from Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California.

The principal weather system sampled was the atmospheric river weather system meandering in a thin band of moisture and precipitation stretching from Hawaii to the California coast. Also, a strong extra-tropical low, a polar jet, a subtropical jet and divergent cross-equatorial flow emanating from an upper anticyclone centered over an enhanced tropical convective band were sampled.

The NOAA G-IV dropsondes combined to monitor the cross-equatorial flow southeast of Hawaii, which played a role in advecting mid- and high-level moisture northward.

More than 200 dropsondes were launched from the four aircraft, plus 16 radiosonde ascents, most of which were assimilated into real-time global prediction models. Precipitation and wind profiles were provided from the Global Hawk by the NASA Goddard radar system called High-altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Atmospheric Profiler (HIWRAP).

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