High Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (HIWRAP)

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Gerry Heymsfield (pushing cart) and Lihua Li prepare to integrate the High-Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (HIWRAP) instrument on NASA’s Global Hawk.

HIWRAP (High-Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler) is a dual-frequency radar (Ka- and Ku-band), dual-beam (300 and 400 incidence angle), conical scan, solid-state transmitter-based system, designed for operation on the high-altitude (20 km) Global Hawk UAV. HIWRAP characteristics: Conically scanning; Simultaneous Ku/Ka-band & two beams @30 and 40 deg; Winds using precipitation & clouds as tracers; Ocean vector wind scatterometry; Map the 3-dimensional winds and precipitation within hurricanes and other severe weather events; Map ocean surface winds in clear to light rain regions using scatterometry.

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