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Remember the ALAMOs

September 14, 2018

A U.S. Air Force “Hurricane Hunter” prepares to drop an ALAMO (Air-Launched Autonomous Micro-Observer) float into the ocean in front of a hurricane. WHOI oceanographer Steve Jayne routinely joins the Hurricane Hunters on their reconnaissance missions flying through hurricanes. ALAMOs sink to the depths, then record temperature and salinity of seawater on the way to the surface, where they relay their data via satellite. This information about the heat content below the sea surface is then provided to hurricane forecasters to help improve their predictions of hurricane intensity. (Photo Courtesy of United States Air Force and Steven Jayne, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)