NASA is using a modified version of the U-2 spy plane, created during the Cold War, to study one of Earth’s least understood weather phenomena: wildfire generated storms.
The jet, which NASA calls the ER-2, contains a flying laboratory of scientific instruments rather than military defenses and has different wiring.
The aircraft’s newest mission is to study weather generated storms.
Fire clouds, scientifically known as pyrocumulonimbus storms, are gigantic thunderstorms produced by wildfire heat. These storms can include lightning, strong winds, and in some cases, fire tornadoes.
“It’s kind of like a chimney where the smoke from the fire is being pushed upward into the thunderstorm, accelerated through that vertical column, and then released,” said David A. Peterson, a meteorologist at the Naval Research Laboratory.
