image: In this photo, pilots prepare for the take-off of NASA Global Hawk 872 at 7:11 a.m. EDT, Sept. 5, from the NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia. Operating from the Global Hawk Operations Center East (GHOCE) at Wallops, the pilots are controlling the unmanned aircraft as it flies over a tropical weather system just to the south of the Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. During the fourth science flight of the 2014 Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) mission, the instruments on the aircraft will gather data and relay it back to the scientists in the GHOCE. The plane is expected to return to Wallops the morning of Sept. 6. For more information about the HS3 mission, visit: www.nasa.gov/hs3. view more
Credit: Credit: NASA Wallops