What Was the Bumpiest Flight Ever on NOAA’s WP-3D Hurricane Hunter Aircraft?

Abstract Motivated by experiencing extreme turbulence during a mission into Hurricane Ian (2022), this research develops a novel “bumpiness index” to objectively quantify the three-dimensional turbulence felt by scientists, pilots, and crew members on NOAA’s WP-3D (hereafter P-3) Orion Hurricane Hunter aircraft missions. The bumpiness is derived using physics first principles and accounts for translational and rotational accelerations about an aircraft’s three Cartesian axes. Since rotational motions are experienced differently depending on where someone is on a plane, the bumpiness index takes into account seat position. We then rank the bumpiest flights in recent history by gathering flight-level data from every tropical cyclone mission on the P-3 since 2004 when data needed from missions for this analysis became readily available as well as data from the infamous flights into Hurricanes Allen (1980) and Hugo (1989). Based on the maximum bumpiness value, the objective algorithm shows that the flight through Hurricane Hugo was the most turbulent ever with the flight into Hurricane Ian ranked second. The flight into Hurricane Hugo was unique because of the large accelerations associated with back–front motions, while the flight into Hurricane Ian was unique because of large accelerations associated with left–right motions. The next two bumpiest flights were in Hurricane Irma (2017) and Hurricane Sam (2021). Statistically, the bumpiest missions tend to be for stronger storms that will weaken in the subsequent 12 h. The largest values of bumpiness tend to be on the inner edge of the eyewall near a large gradient in radar reflectivity. Significance Statement After a turbulent mission on NOAA’s WP-3D (P-3) Hurricane Hunter mission into Hurricane Ian from 2022, the crew wanted to know if it was the bumpiest mission ever. A bumpiness index was developed to characterize three-dimensional turbulence felt by crew on board and was used to rank all missions on the P-3 since 2004 and a couple of infamously turbulent older storms. Based on the bumpiness index, the mission into Hurricane Hugo was the bumpiest of all time with the mission in Hurricane Ian being the bumpiest since at least 2004. The bumpiness index developed in this study can be used for any aircraft.