SMG Lead Forecaster Tim Garner (Photo: SMG Meteorology Group)
(December 21, 2009) - The National Weather Service Southern Region's Spaceflight Meteorology Group (SMG) and Lead Forecaster Tim Garner have been featured in the inaugural online issue of Meteorological Technology International. Along with a series of meteorology-related articles, the magazine's January 2010 launch issue focuses on the Group's critical role in NASA's manned spaceflight program.
Garner, who has served as Lead Forecaster for numerous space shuttle missions, is quoted in the magazine explaining how closely SMG works with NASA and the Air Force. He said "Launch weather is handled by the Air Force meteorologists of the 45th Weather Squadron at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, who cover the launch pad area, accent trajectory and ground operations. Any abort landing weather will be handled by the Spaceflight Meteorology Group at the Johnson Space Center in Houston."
While the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is always the primary landing site, the lead forecaster and SMG team keep a close watch at two potential abort landing sites in the United States and three in Europe. They are White Sands in New Mexico, Edwards Air Force Base in California, Morón and Zaragoza in Spain and Istres Air Force Base in France. Garner noted the launch cannot take place unless the weather is good in at least one of the alternate landing sites.
While Lead Forecasters are alternated for Space Shuttle missions, Garner noted that each is responsible for the teams planning, work, schedules and the timeline for working with the Mission Control team. Additionally, the Spaceflight Meteorology Group provides the astronauts with weather briefings including the status of lightning within a five nautical mile radius, thunderstorms, tornadoes, precipitation, depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes.
