HS3 Global Hawk Navigation Data for Hurricane and Storm Research

Navigation and housekeeping data from NASA's Global Hawk aircraft during the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel campaign. The dataset contains real-time 1 Hz UDP packets broadcast in IWG1 format, capturing flight and atmospheric measurements to study tropical storm formation and the Saharan Air Layer. It is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, with metadata last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the relationship between flight-level winds and tropical cyclone intensity using wind measurement columns.
• Studying the role of atmospheric water vapor by examining dew point temperature indicators.
• Investigating aircraft attitude and viewing geometry to calibrate remote sensing instruments.
• Correlating atmospheric pressure and temperature readings with storm-scale internal processes.
• Modeling the Saharan Air Layer's impact on storm formation using upper-level wind and static pressure data.

Strengths

• Data originates from a NASA airborne campaign with specific scientific goals for hurricane research.
• Provides high-frequency (1 Hz) time-series measurements from the LN-100G IMU and flight computer.
• Uses a standardized IWG1 ASCII format supported across NASA and NCAR aircraft platforms.

Limitations

• Specific row count, file size, and complete column list are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on the last update date, with one listing 2014 and another 2026.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Real-time data acquisition from instruments aboard the Global Hawk aircraft, broadcast via NASDAT as UDP packets.

Time Range

During the HS3 campaign (specific years not provided).

Freshness

2026-03-13 01:26:39.933746

Geography

Flight paths over regions studied by the HS3 campaign, likely including Atlantic hurricane basins.