NASA Flights Aim to Enhance Winter Weather Warnings

The NURTURE mission will use advanced airborne instruments to collect atmospheric data on severe winter storms and improve weather forecasting models.

Jan. 28, 2026 at 3:39am

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A team of NASA scientists has deployed on an international mission called NURTURE to better understand severe winter storms. The campaign will use a Gulfstream III aircraft equipped with remote sensing instruments to collect data on moisture, clouds, and ozone as winter weather systems develop across North America and the North Atlantic. The data will be used to improve weather forecasting models and demonstrate the potential for future space-based weather monitoring capabilities.

Why it matters

Severe winter weather events like cold air outbreaks, windstorms, snow and ice storms, and extreme precipitation can have significant costs and threaten lives and national security. However, these types of storms are not forecasted very accurately, especially in high-latitude regions where space-based observations lack the necessary sensitivity. The NURTURE mission aims to fill this data gap and provide better information to first responders, decision-makers, and the public.

The details

The NURTURE mission is using a suite of remote sensing instruments aboard NASA's Gulfstream III aircraft to collect atmospheric data on winter weather systems. The plane will be making flights stretching from the Northern Atlantic Ocean over Canada through the Northeast United States, measuring moisture, clouds, and ozone. A parallel companion mission called NAWDIC will be operating out of Shannon, Ireland, while a third mission led by NOAA will study moisture transport from the tropics to the Western U.S. By combining the data from these campaigns, scientists hope to better understand the large-scale flows and small-scale features that drive high-impact winter weather events.

  • On Jan. 24, the research team departed from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, aboard the center's Gulfstream III aircraft.
  • For nearly a month, the plane will be making flights stretching from the Northern Atlantic Ocean over Canada through the Northeast United States.
  • The second phase of the campaign, scheduled to fly out of Langley next year, will serve as the inaugural mission of NASA's new airborne science laboratory, a Boeing 777.

The players

NURTURE

The North American Upstream Feature-Resolving and Tropopause Uncertainty Reconnaissance Experiment, an airborne campaign that uses a suite of remote sensing instruments to collect atmospheric data on winter weather with the goal of improving the models that feed storm forecasts.

Will McCarty

The weather program manager and program scientist at NASA's Headquarters in Washington.

Amin Nehrir

A research scientist at NASA Langley and co-investigator for the NURTURE mission.

Steven Cavallo

The principal investigator for NURTURE and lead scientist at the University of Oklahoma, School of Meteorology.

NAWDIC

The North Atlantic Waveguide, Dry Intrusion, and Downstream Impact Campaign, a parallel companion mission led by a team of international partners operating out of Shannon, Ireland.

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What they’re saying

“Part of NASA's role is to leverage our expertise and resources for the benefit of humankind - with innovation always being at our core. The NURTURE campaign is doing exactly that by outfitting our aircraft with one-of-a-kind instruments designed to put our science data into action to understand dangerous weather events before, and as they form.”

— Will McCarty, weather program manager and program scientist at NASA's Headquarters

“These storms are not forecasted very accurately. Space observations of high latitudes in the Arctic lack the sensitivity needed to gather accurate data in such a dry, atmospheric environment. In lower latitudes, we benefit from observations from radiosondes, surface networks, and satellite observations. We are using cutting-edge technology beyond those that we have in space to get a better snapshot of atmospheric dynamics.”

— Amin Nehrir, research scientist at NASA Langley and co-investigator for the NURTURE mission

“Effects from severe weather have significant costs that threaten lives and national security by destabilizing supply chains and damaging infrastructure.”

— Steven Cavallo, principal investigator for NURTURE and lead scientist at the University of Oklahoma, School of Meteorology

What’s next

The second phase of the NURTURE campaign, scheduled to fly out of Langley next year, will serve as the inaugural mission of NASA's new airborne science laboratory, a Boeing 777. These flights will cover a larger range of 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) and use a larger suite of instruments to collect detailed observations of the atmosphere over Europe, Greenland, the North Atlantic Ocean, Canada, the majority of the U.S., and much of the Arctic Ocean.

The takeaway

The NURTURE mission is leveraging NASA's expertise and resources to develop cutting-edge atmospheric monitoring capabilities that can provide better data and forecasting for severe winter weather events. By combining airborne observations with existing satellite and ground-based data, the mission aims to fill critical gaps in our understanding of high-latitude weather systems and improve the ability of first responders, decision-makers, and the public to prepare for and respond to these dangerous storms.