Left: The flight paths of all the G-IV missions for Hurricane Harvey.
Right: Data screens aboard the WP- 3D in Hurricane Irma’ s eye.
Earning His Wings
Underwood’ s job has taken him into the eye of five hurricanes since he began his career at NOAA in 2016: Matthew, Harvey, Irma, Jose and Maria. He had only been on the job for a month when he tagged along as an observer on a flight mission into Matthew, a Category 4 storm, and he wasn’ t prepared for what to expect.
“ Flying into a hurricane is kind of like being on a wooden roller coaster for about eight hours,” he says.“ You get tossed around, there are sudden drops, and the plane is constantly vibrating. In the eye, however, it is actually very smooth, so you get some relief during that time.”
For Underwood, the most exciting part of his job is definitely the flights.“ They are high-intensity and hands-on, and I feel a sense of accomplishment after each one,” he says.“ It’ s always a rewarding experience.”
Joining the Crew
Each flight crew is made up of a team of pilots, navigators, flight directors, flight engineers and technicians, all of which have different roles but come together to make the mission successful. Because of the sensitive nature of each team member’ s role, joining a flight crew is no easy task.
“ There’ s a lot of training to go through before you can be part of the aircrew,” says Underwood.“ Water survival and other emergency situation training such as fires onboard are the most important, and we drill those regularly. There’ s also training to operate the science equipment, set conditions of flight and be an observer for engine starts.”
The dropsondes Underwood deploys during missions provide a wide range of atmospheric data, including temperature, humidity pressure and wind to analyze and understand a storm’ s formation and intensity.
“ All of the data we collect gets factored into models that predict where the storm is going and how strong it will be when it gets there,” he says.“ Better predictions allow officials to issue watches and warnings to areas with greater precision, which, in turn, saves lives. The data also provides a greater understanding of tropical cyclone formation, which will allow for more accurate predictions of storms yet to come.”
While hurricane reconnaissance and research is NOAA’ s biggest operation, the aircraft are also used for missions like coastal mapping, snow surveys, marine life tracking and atmospheric studies. Underwood spent three weeks in Alaska with one of
the Twin Otters, helping with a sea ice extent and ocean surface temperature study. He also traveled to Ireland in February 2018 to support an atmospheric science mission with a WP-3D.
“ I look forward to the travel,” he says.“ So far, I’ ve been to several cities around the continental U. S., Barbados and north of the Arctic Circle in Alaska. Whenever people are needed for a project, I try to be the first to volunteer.”
Sharing the Experience
Underwood documents his experiences on social media to demonstrate how hurricanes are one of the planet’ s most destructive forces, claiming lives and billions of dollars in property every year. As a WVU alumnus, he participated in a recent Snapchat takeover to discuss Hurricane Irma, and several of his Twitter videos have gone viral.
“ I wanted to make sure people understood the gravity of the situation and the destruction these storms can bring,” he says of his videos and posts.“ Watches and warnings do their job, but actually seeing the wind, rain and power these storms can deliver helps hammer home the idea that these are truly monsters we are dealing with. The work we do at AOC is incredible. We put ourselves in harm’ s way with the goal of helping others prepare for the worst. We use science and engineering
Underwood at his data station aboard the WP-3D.
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