CARCAH manages storm requirements

by Master Sgt. Brian Lamar
403rd Wing Public Affairs

9/5/2014 - KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- A man sits in a small side room of the National Hurricane Center in Miami and scans a bank of computer monitors that stream satellite information, communications from weather reconnaissance aircraft, and the flight path data, when the phone rings with news of aircraft being denied clearance into Hurricane Cristobal.

The plate is full for John Pavone, a supervisory meteorologist and aircraft coordinator with the Chief, Aerial Reconnaissance Coordination All Hurricanes (CARCAH) cell, who is coordinating with air traffic control during an investigative mission off the coast of Texas while dealing with Hurricane Cristobal off the coast of North Carolina.

"This is a busy day. We are having a lot of fun today," said Pavone, who has been working in CARCAH for 27 years.

CARCAH is a three-man unit, located at the NHC and is a subunit of the 53rd WRS, whose main mission is to act as a single point of contact to coordinate all the reconnaissance flight requirements into the storms.

The middle of the Atlantic Ocean can be a frustrating place for the NHC hurricane forecasters due to the data sparse environment.

One of the best ways to get the ground-truth data from a storm out in the wild blue yonder is to send a WC-130J from the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron or a P3 Orion with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration into the storm, according to Pavone.

CARCAH handles all the requests for reconnaissance flights from the NHC and Central Pacific Hurricane Center forecasters to satisfy the requests with the 53rd assets.

"Managing the data from several aircraft at one time especially when flying more than one storm can be a real challenge," said Pavone.

The flights typically cover the areas of the Atlantic, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Missions are given priority based on their location and threat to make landfall and then assigned to the 53rd WRS for operational data collection purposes to get the latest weather information to assist the NHC with providing the forecasting models.

Every 10 minutes, the reconnaissance aircraft send volumes of weather data via satellite.

The CARCAH cell members also act as quality control for the data pouring in during a storm reconnaissance flight making sure it is correct before it is sent it to the world.

"We check the information coming in from the aircraft to make sure it is meteorologically sound and accurate before we release it," said Pavone.

Another job that can pop up during a weather flight that keeps the men of CARCAH hopping is helping coordinate with Air Traffic Control to gain flight permissions in certain areas.

During the invest mission into a storm designated as AL98 off the coast of Texas, the aircraft has trouble getting into an operational altitude because of all the traffic coming into the Texas coast airports.

Pavone worked with Air Traffic Control to gain access to the area and the 53rd WRS was able to determine that the storm was not likely to develop into a tropical depression.

During the winter season, CARCAH also coordinates winter storm requirements in support of the National Winter Storm Operations Plan. Winter storms are flown to gather information for forecasters to help predict impact areas of where heavy snowfall will occur.

The other two members of the CARCAH cell are Steve Feuer, who came from the NOAA's Hurricane Research Division and Warren Madden, who had recently been working with Lockheed Martin as a software developer.

"An added benefit of hiring Madden was his computer skills. Madden took the software that we use to plot reconnaissance data and fixed it," Pavone said.

According, Dr. Rick Knabb, the director of the National Hurricane Center, the relationship between the forecasters and the 53rd is important to the livelihood of those affected by a storm.

"So many of our operations decisions are based on the aircraft data. In my view, the aircraft data is not a nice to have, it is a must have, and CARCAH does a great job to facilitate our requests for data," said Knabb.

At the end of the day, Pavone began briefing Feuer giving him details of the reconnaissance flights completed during his watch and a look to what was planned for the next day.

As Pavone grabs his things to go home for the night, he smiles and says, "It's been a great day. We had lots of excitement".

"I do this everyday because it is fun. I love it. When it stops being fun, I will stop, but I am still here so it must be fun," said Pavon