JOAN CARTAN-HANSEN, HOST: Humans fly all kinds of devices to collect scientific data.

I think the bravest are those pilots who fly planes into hurricanes to learn more about these devastating storms.

Let's meet one.

[MUSIC] NATHAN KAHN, NOAA PILOT: My name is Nathan Kahn.

I'm the commanding officer of NOAA's Aircraft Operations Center.

I'm a commissioned officer in the NOAA commissioned Officer Corps, and for about the last 10 years I've been a pilot with NOAA's aircraft operations, specifically flying into hurricanes.

CARTAN-HANSEN: Kahn and his team fly a wide variety of specialized aircrafts conducting different types of scientific missions.

The most dangerous assignment is flying into a hurricane.

KAHN: Hurricanes are such a large weather phenomenon and largely misunderstood or not understood, and they have a huge impact on people's lives and property, especially in the Gulf and Atlantic coast of the United States.

And really the only way to truly start to learn more about these storms is to pull data from places that we can't get it with satellites, and that's in the heart of the storm.

CARTAN-HANSEN: Kahn says flying into a hurricane starts like any other flight.

KAHN: All of the same principles apply, lift, drag, airspeed management, altitude, all of those things.

It's all the same principles of aviation.

The difference is how we fly it because we're in an environment where frankly, nature does not want us to be.

CARTAN-HANSEN: A crew consists of a number of people because flights to and from a storm can take hours.

KAHN: For the P3 flights there are three pilots, two seats for those pilots, and then one rotates.

So, they rotate out every couple of hours to keep people fresh and ready to go.

And then two flight engineers, the flight engineer sits in the center seat between the two pilots.

It helps to manage the airplane, so they rotate out as well.

Behind them on the airplane, you've got the in-flight meteorologist who drives the mission and the safety for the weather systems that we're flying through.

Next to them is a navigator who helps coordinate that as well as doing the long-term communications and management of where the aircraft is spatially.

And then as you move back into the airplane, there's a bunch of crew stations for radar operators, research meteorologists that are collecting data and analyzing in real time.

There's an onboard network administrator who manages all of the science equipment and all of the networks on the aircraft.

There is additionally what we call the AVAPS operator.

That's the person who is dropping the expendables out of the airplane.

CARTAN-HANSEN: Those expendables are the scientific instruments used to collect information.

KAHN: Most of our data gathering is centered around standard atmospheric measurements, right?

Pressure, humidity, temperature, wind speed, and wind direction.

The aircraft itself is its own instrument.

So everywhere the airplane is, we're gathering that information.

CARTAN-HANSEN: So, how do you fly into a hurricane?

KAHN: When we go in our priorities for the airplane are keeping it right side up.

So we keep the wings level, we keep it on airspeed because when you're flying an airplane airspeed is life.

That is what keeps you flying.

And then we maintain a track over the ground because that keeps us moving through the storm system.

CARTAN-HANSEN: They want to get to the eye of the storm, but they don't head straight in.

KAHN: If we aimed right at the middle, the forces would hit us in the side, and they would push us in this direction.

So, we do a lot of flying into the wind with what's called a crab angle to kind of turn us toward the wind so that if the wind is moving this direction, we fly straight through it on a geospatial reference.

Basically the forces are all there.

They're just significantly stronger.

So, we have to work differently within our own envelope in order to accomplish the mission we want to do.

CARTAN-HANSEN: They fly two to four passes through the center of the storm and send the data real time to the hurricane center.

Because of their work, the accuracy of hurricane tracking has increased by at least 25 % And that saves lives.

KAHN: Wind is the driving factor in a hurricane.

Wind pushes water, creates storm surge, wind knocks down trees, creates debris fields.

Wind is the driving problem behind the power of a hurricane.

And so, understanding where the damaging forces are within that system and how strong they are is critical to who evacuates, who should shelter in place.

Where is the weather service going to issue a tornado warning.

CARTAN-HANSEN: Flying into hurricanes isn't all they do.

Crews in another plane, a king air, fly over the impacted areas after the storm.

KAHN: Our King Air actually took pictures of people on roofs that FEMA then used and local emergency officials used to vector rescue.

So, we are not just on the forecasting front, we have other aircraft and crews that are doing the response to clean up, the support for people after the storm.

CARTAN-HANSEN: Crews also do coastline surveys and monitor mountain snowpack.

KAHN: We are not scientists ourselves specifically, but we take the airplanes and the ships to the place the scientists need to go to collect that information.

CARTAN-HANSEN: Hurricane hunters go back a while.

The first hurricane pilot flew into a storm near Galveston, Texas in 1943.

And even today, most storm-specific training for flying into a hurricane is done on-the-job.

KAHN: One of the questions we get asked a lot is, are you guys adrenaline junkies?

Do you really get into this thing?

And it's weird, but the answer is no.

The people who want that adrenaline spike, they wouldn't last.

The hurricane job especially is a marathon.

It's not a sprint.

CARTAN-HANSEN: And though Kahn loves his job, he has definite feelings about flying into a hurricane.

KAHN: It's terrifying.

It's terrifying.

Anybody who tells anybody in my line of work who says that they're not scared is either lying to you out of some sense of bravado or they're insane.

CARTAN-HANSEN: If you want to learn more about flight, check out the science trek website.

You'll find it at science trek dot org.

[MUSIC] ANNOUNCER: Presentation of Science Trek on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

By the Idaho National Laboratory, mentoring talent and finding solutions for energy and security challenges, by the Friends of Idaho Public Television and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.