Jeremy Samuel, a range weather forecaster at the 45th Weather Squadron, monitors the weather ahead of a launch. The squadron keeps
their eyes on a variety of weather sensors located throughout the Space Coast area in order to safely access if it is safe to launch a
Photo: USAF
rocket from either Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Keeping an eye on launch-day weather
By Tony Rice
Before MAVEN can study the
atmosphere of Mars, it had to not
only overcome Earth’s gravity
but also make it through Earth’s
atmosphere.
Central
Florida’s
sometimes volatile weather can
make launching rockets difficult.
Weather is responsible for more
than a third of launch delays and
nearly half of the scrubs.
The meteorologists of the 45th
Weather Squadron (45WS) at the
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
(CCAFS) keep a close eye on
that weather. In addition to the
satellite images and radar your
local weather forecasters use, 45WS
scientists have one of the most
unique sets of sensors in the world.
The 45WS provides weather
information for launches of rockets
like MAVEN’s Atlas V, but also for
the SpaceX Falcon, Delta rockets
carrying missions like GRAIL, and
the Space Shuttle launches and
landings at the Kennedy Space
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Center. They also forecast wind and
lightning threats for activities like
moving sensitive spacecraft and
rockets to the launch pad.
Nearly four dozen weather
towers start 27 miles (43 km) west of
the launch pad and are scattered
throughout CCAFS, and ocean
buoys extend 30 miles (48 km) to
the east. Towers and buoys are
topped with instruments measuring
wind direction, wind speed, and
temperature. Nearly three dozen
field mills measure the strength of the
electrical fields in the atmosphere,
helping forecasters judge the
potential for lightning. Weather
balloons are also released about
5 hours and 2 hours before launch
(and as needed) to measure upper
level winds.
Readings from those instruments
are fed into the rocket’s computers
up until the final moments of the
countdown, to allow for accurate
steering as it rises through layers of
the atmosphere.
Weather isn’t just measured
remotely.
Meteorologists
and
trained Air Force pilots watch
approaching thunderstorms, and
observe clouds from the ground
and skies. Anvil shaped clouds are
watched very carefully, as they
indicate thunderstorms which may
produce lightning.
Lightning is a big concern for
launching rockets, and the 45WS is
especially well prepared for it. Only
the African country of Rwanda has
more lightning strikes than central
Florida.
In addition to the detection of
cloud-to-ground lightning that your
local meteorologist probably has
access to, the 45WS can detect
cloud-to-cloud lightning. This gives
them a unique 3-dimensional view of
a thunderstorm. All this information
is put to use to keep rockets, as well
as the people launching them, safe.
The next time you watch a rocket
launch, listen for the launch weather
officer, and hope for a “Go!”
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