NASA Plans to Study Hurricanes the Hard Way: From the Inside

Specially equipped planes will fly into the upper reaches of hurricanes--and soar above them--to see what steers these violent storms, NASA said Wednesday.

This could help give earlier warning when hurricanes are on the way and more accurately pinpoint areas that need to be evacuated, said Ramesh Kakar of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

“We could have a better handle on how the hurricane is moving around, what the future path is going to be,” Kakar said.

By looking down on the storm from overhead, researchers will get a three-dimensional view of how winds are moving within the hurricane and how much rain it is carrying, details that are impossible to see from inside the storm or from lower altitudes, Kakar said.

NASA’s high-altitude flights will augment U.S. Air Force “Hurricane Hunter” planes and other government research aircraft that look at the lower levels of hurricanes.

The NASA information will be checked against the storms’ final paths to see how closely they tally.