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| | NOAA News Online (Story 672) |
 | | The development of dropwindsondes, small instruments that are deployed from the aircraft and transmit data back to the aircraft, has enabled meteorologists to get temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed and wind direction data from the altitude of the aircraft down to the sea surface. |
 | | It all started when a mechanic from AOC decided to spruce up a bedraggled P-3 that was unkindly called "the pig." He drew up a picture of Miss Piggy in a flight suit grasping a lightening bolt and renamed the aircraft. |
 | | NOAA's hurricane hunters and other aircraft are operated, managed, equipped, and maintained by the Aircraft Operations Center, located at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla. The aircraft are crewed by officers of the NOAA Corps, the nation's seventh service, and civilian meteorologists, flight engineers, and electronics engineers and technicians. |
| www.noaanews.noaa.gov /stories/s672.htm (2270 words) |
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