Our team at UAH have been on 3 deployments to tropical systems this year…Tropical Storm Fay, Hurricane Gustav, and Hurricane Ike. The fleet of 4 vehicles includes the MAX (Mobile Alabama X-band radar), the MIPS (Mobile Integrated Profiling System, takes vertical profiles of wind, temp, etc.), the M3V (an instrumented vehicle that records temp, pressure, wind every second along with location; it can even determine the wind when moving, using GPS), and a 4th truck that carries the generator for the MIPS.
The video below is from Hurricane Gustav…we set up at Bogalusa airport in Louisiana, about 30 miles north of New Orleans, but drove the M3V down to Lake Ponchartrain around the time of landfall near Houma, another 75 miles or so to our south.
Click here to watch the hurricane video.
Also, if you have not seen it yet, check out my trip with James Spann 26 miles down the Warrior River, from Bluff Creek to Bankhead Lock and Dam on July 31, 2008. We went through the lock in my 15′ Manatee Boat, and got a nice look at one of the largest dams in the southeast. There is a some comedy and some good music, so check it out. We want to get to 1,000 views. Click here to watch the video!
