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The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as the Hurricane Hunters, flew its first mission of the 2008 hurricane season on 11 July. Leaving from their home base at Keesler AFB, Mississippi, a WC-130J Weatherbird crew flew into Hurricane Bertha, a Category 1 storm, approximately 350 miles southeast of Bermuda. This year, all ten WC-130Js are equipped with the Stepped-Frequency Microwave Radiometer, which measures the wind speeds at the surface. The 53rd WRS is tasked by the National Hurricane Center in Miami to provide data used to forecast the path of nature's most destructive storms. The data collected by the Hurricane Hunters on their missions increases the accuracy of the center's forecasts by thirty percent.
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