ProSensing has delivered three Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR) units to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) "hurricane hunter" team at the Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) in Tampa, FL.

SFMR, which operates from a wing pod on AOC's P-3 aircraft, provides continuous estimates of wind speed at the ocean surface directly below the aircraft. These data are processed along with flight level winds to determine the structure and intensity of the hurricane. Surface wind measurements provided by SFMR have had a direct impact on improving the accuracy of public advisories issued by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) during a hurricane.

Previously, forecasters depended on a few point measurements of surface winds derived from buoys and dropsondes. The continuous profiles of surface winds provided by SFMR provides forecasters with much more complete data on hurricane winds, which in turn has impacted public advisories issued during the 2004 hurricane season.

Dr. Peter Black of the NOAA Hurricane Research Division has said the following regarding the SFMR:

"I have to say it was a truly historic day for new hurricane observational technology, and it has had an immediate impact on landfall forecasts and warning, not to mention the impact for years on the research that will be done with the valuable data sets. Today the SFMR data had a huge impact on the forecast in that it showed the hurricane and gale force wind radii had decreased from earlier measurements, thus allowing forecasters to delay raising hurricane watches along the entire Florida east coast for at least one forecast cycle. We owe a dept of gratitude for this result to a long chain of outstanding individual efforts beginning with the engineers at ProSensing, Inc who built and calibrated the SFMR…"

NOAA 2004 Public Advisories: 8-30-04, 8-31-04, 9-1-04, 9-3-04

NOAA Press Release: 2-24-03