This summer, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) will host one cadet from the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) and one cadet from the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) as Tropical Cyclone (TC) research interns during the third annual joint services summer internship.

 “We are excited to welcome another class of cadets as parts of the JTWC Academies Internship, which brings together students from the national academies to learn about real-world operational issues at the intersection of meteorology and decision-making. This program leaves a lasting impact on our next generation of officers training to be scientist-leaders, and I hope that this immersion in operations will inspire them to complete their educations at their respective academies with a renewed vigor and sense of purpose,” said JTWC Training Department Head Mr. Owen Shieh.

In summer 2018, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center hosted four undergraduates from the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA), U.S. Military Academy (USMA), and U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) to conduct tropical cyclone-related research and explore the effects of the environment on national security and warfighting.

Midshipman (MIDN) 1/C Erin McDonnell of USNA researched the remote impacts of tropical cyclone energy on melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet via a phenomenon known as teleconnections, which can transport moisture and energy from the tropics poleward to the midlatitudes or polar regions. MIDN 2/C Triona Swanson, also of USNA, investigated the steering influences of different levels in the atmosphere on a case study of Tropical Cyclone Darby, which tracked due west and made landfall on the Big Island of Hawaii in 2016 despite being forecast to turn northward. TC Darby was one of several tropical cyclones to impact Naval operations, including the multinational Rim of the Pacific Exercise, in the vicinity of Hawaii that year.

Cadet Mackenzie Rudolph of USAFA focused on JTWC’s nascent two-week tropical cyclone outlook tool, still being tested operationally, which evaluates multiple environmental, climatological, and model-based factors to assign a probability that a tropical cyclone will develop in an area within two weeks. JTWC’s legacy “invest area” system relies on already having an area of convection to track which is suspect for tropical cyclone development in the next 72 hours. The two-week tropical cyclone outlook gives planners more lead time to make decisions about operations or exercises.

Finally, Cadet Emily McKinney of USMA presented a case study on Tropical Cyclone Gita, which caused significant damage to American Samoa in February 2018. She discussed how the Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) concept applied to Army support of federal authorities, like FEMA, during the humanitarian assistance response to TC Gita.

The students visited nearby commands, such as the Air Force’s 17th Operational Weather Squadron (OWS), which provides satellite analysts, Air Force enlisted personnel, to JTWC. JTWC in turn provides Aerographer’s Mates to forecast for Naval aviation installations in the Pacific AOR at the 17th OWS. The interns also visited U.S. Pacific Command to learn more about the different responsibilities of each military branch with regard to forecasting and resource protection in the AOR which covers more than 100 million square miles in both the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Tours of the National Weather Services’ (NWS) Central Pacific Hurricane Center, Weather Forecast Office in Honolulu, and the NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, highlighted cooperation between NWS, NOAA, and the military to protect both DoD and Micronesian civilian populations in the Pacific region.

“The joint services summer internship program provides an opportunity for students from all the military academies, regardless of their eventual career path, to discover how meteorology and information warfare integrate with and support traditional operational assets,” said JTWC Commanding Officer Cmdr. R. Corey Cherrett.

The cadets and midshipmen presented their preliminary findings and a prospectus for further research in a public forum during their last week at JTWC. Additionally, MIDN 1/C McDonnell presented research on the impact of moisture and energy transport into the polar regions on high-latitude DoD infrastructure at the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program symposium in Washington, D.C. in November, and at the 99th Annual American Meteorological Society’s Annual Meeting in Phoenix, AZ, in January. She will attend flight school after graduation to become a Naval Flight Officer.

The JTWC Academies Internship complements other outreach efforts by JTWC to strengthen local and international collaboration as well as educate others on tropical cyclone impacts. Other outreach opportunities include an annual visit to customers across the western Pacific, hosting tours for the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies’ Comprehensive Crisis Management course, and collaborating with the National Weather Service to deliver a new Pacific version of the Effective Hurricane Messaging course. JTWC also participates in multiple tropical cyclone related conferences and working groups every year, discussing the latest in TC reconnaissance, modeling, forecasting, and communication with other academic and forecasting agencies.

JTWC (Task Element 80.7.7.1) is jointly staffed by U.S. Navy and Air Force personnel and falls under the operational control of Commander, Task Group 80.7/Commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command via Fleet Weather Center San Diego (Task Unit 80.7.7). U.S. Air Force personnel are administratively assigned to the 17th Operational Weather Squadron, a subordinate squadron of the 1st Weather Group and the 557th Weather Wing.

JTWC provides tropical cyclone reconnaissance, forecast, warning and decision support services for operational advantage to U.S. government agencies operating in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Navy personnel at JTWC also provide tsunami advisory information and recommendations to shore installations and units, as well as impact forecasts for U.S. Pacific Fleet’s airborne Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and decision support services to U.S. Pacific Command and its subordinate commands.

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