NASA Drone to Study El Niño Weather Changes over Pacific Ocean

Washington (PNA/Sputnik) — The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Global Hawk drone will conduct missions over the Pacific Ocean to monitor the effects of El Niño current weather patterns, Northrop Grumman announced.

The drone missions will provide detailed meteorological measurements from a region in the Pacific that is known to be particularly critical for interactions linked to West Coast storms and rainfall, Northrop Grumman noted.

“The NASA Global Hawk will conduct several missions to collect detailed data over the Pacific Ocean from complex El Niño weather patterns resulting from variations in ocean temperatures across the equator,” Northrop Grumman said in a news release on Friday.

The missions will take place from February 2016 to March 2016 as part of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-led missions called Sensing Hazards with Operational Unmanned Technology (SHOUT), according to the release.

“With the ability to fly at 65,000 feet for 30 hours, the NASA Global Hawk allows us to study intense and remote weather conditions that were previously unreachable,” Northrop Grumman’s NASA Global Hawk program manager Dave Aguinaldo said in the release. (PNA/Sputnik) JBP/SSC