Terry Hock, Lead Engineer for AVAPS: Gives thumbs up during Feb 15-16 Global Hawk flight (22 sondes were launched). (Pic: John "JC" Coffey)
AVAPS — Advanced Vertical Atmospheric Profiling System developed by NCAR, deploys dozens of dropsondes at altitudes up to 65,000 ft from the unmanned Global Hawk aircraft collecting high vertical resolution measurements of the temperature, pressure, relative humidity, and wind speed and direction in the atmosphere.