# Presentation: 200144

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***I n t e g r i t y  -  S e r v i c e  -  E x c e l l e n c e***

***53******rd****** WRS******2006 Hurricane Season***

**Notes:**
You won’t have to start the music on me, I will be brief concerning our part in the 2006 storm season.

## Season Comparison53rd WRS Tasking 

***Season Comparison******53******rd****** WRS Tasking ***

**	****	****	**** ‘****02****	****‘03****	****‘04****	**** ’05      ‘06**
**    ****TASKED****	****	****216****	****230****	****273****	**** 355     125**
**    ****CANCELLED****	****  52****	****  77****	**** 70      102       41**
**    ****REQUIRED****	**** 164****	****153****	****203     253       84**
**    ****ACCOMP****	****	**** 158****	****151****	****199     246       84**
**RELIABILITY          96%****	**** 99%****	**** 98%    97%    100%**

**Notes:**
1. As one would expect, the number of taskings were way down in 2006.
2.The percentage of cancellations was up slightly from past years, since many disturbances did not develop as advertised by the models. 
3. In the J model’s second full season, the squadron’s reliability rate in 2006 was, once again, in keeping with our tradition of excellence.  When the tasking bell sounds, maintenance does a great job having the planes ready to go.  After that, it’s up to the crews, who continue to perform at a high level.

## NHOP Flight Hours 

***NHOP Flight Hours****** ***

**Notes:**
Our average flying hours (including deploy and redeploy) over the last 10 years is 1040 hours—indicated by the green line.  
Our busier years being 98-99, 03-05 and the less-tasked years coming in 97, 00-02, 06).
3. In 2006 our flying total was 637 hours.  This compares to the 500 hours we flew back in 1997.    
4. The commonality between 1997 and 2006—they were both El Nino years!

## 53rd Flying Hrs by Month

***53******rd****** Flying Hrs by Month***

**Notes:**
We started out on a fairly average note in Jun and July.
August confirmed that notion (in what turned out to be half of our total flying hours!). 
3. But with most of the activity well east in the Atlantic, very few storms were tasked the rest of the way, however...
4. East Pacific Hurricane tasking accounted for 38% of the flying hours in SEP and OCT (Hurricanes JOHN, LANE, and PAUL)

## 2006 Storm Flying Hours % by Storm

**Notes:**
If we look at it by storm, ERNESTO and BEYRL had 45% of the actual storm flying hours      (Actual total storm flying hours: 472; (doesn’t count deploy-and redeploy)
The rest of the Atlantic hours were fairly evenly distrubuted among ALBERTO, CHRIS FLORENCE, and the INVESTS (39%)
The East Pacific was represented by Hurricanes JOHN, LANE, and PAUL as they tracked towards the Gulf of California (16%)  

## Technological Improvements

***Technological Improvements***

**J-Model Satellite Ground Station**
**      ****- FTP Capability**
**AVAPS**
**      ****- U-Blox Sondes**
**      ****- Sonde “Re-radiation” **
**SFMR**

**Notes:**
J-Model Satellite Ground Station:  Our satellite ground station at Keesler will soon have FTP capability which will allow transmission of the HD obs and dropsonde data directly to NHC computers.  That will give us the capability to function as alternate CARCAH if necessary.

AVAPS (Airborne Vertical Atmospheric Profiling System):  U-blox sondes are now in use which “block-out”  interference from the European GPS constellation.  In particular, this has improved wind measurements at the lowest levels of the sonde run.
We now use the re-radiation technique which allows the sonde to lock-on to the GPS signal before being launched from the aircraft.  The result is a much faster sensing of the winds, usually 5-10 sec rather than 30 sec-1 min after release.

SFMR: Final flight testing to incorporate the latest  hardware/software mods with the SMFR is scheduled for April.  The hope is to have one SFMR-capable WC-130J per month (starting in June 07, with the hope of five by Oct 07 ).  The instrumentation will be mounted on the right side of the aircraft, under the wing, and outside the number 4 engine. (As pictured).

This will give us a continuous read-out of surface winds speeds and rainfall rates in the high density observations.  

These items will be briefed in detail later in the conference.

## Public Affairs

***Public Affairs***

***Media Flights***
***Airshows***
***CHAT***

**Notes:**
The 53rd continues to run an active public affairs program. 

1. Media Flights: resumed in the 2006 storm season.   
2. Airshows: On the increase  
3. CHAT: Caribbean Hurricane Awareness Tour (April 2007—our busiest event)

Website: Hurricanehunters.com continues to be a valuable source of information.

## U.S. AIR FORCE

***U.S. AIR FORCE***