NASA Global Hawk S-HIS Measurements During HS3

The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) mission to observe Atlantic basin hurricane processes was achieved using a high altitude (20 km) NASA Global Hawk Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with a payload consisting of a high density dropsonde system (AVAPS), capable of ~80 drops per flight, a hyperspectral high resolution (1-2 km) infrared sounding system (S-HIS), and a cloud and aerosol profiling LIDAR (CPL). Deployments from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility provided 30-hour flight duration coverage of the entire Atlantic Ocean basin from mid-August to mid-September 2012-2014. In this poster, high-density S-HIS vertical sounding observations are described and validated using the lower density, but higher vertical resolution, dropsonde observations. Shown is the S-HIS ability to observe the fine horizontal scale clear air temperature and moisture structure within the eye, above the convection, and throughout the environment of a hurricane. The ability to observe the temperature and moisture structure of the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) is also demonstrated.