July 8, 20:15 EDT
Research personnel from Florida International University (FIU), Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) and the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) have converged at the University of Florida (UF) to collect tower and house equipment to deploy for Hurricane Dennis. Teams (led by *) were formed to conduct house and tower field measurement activities:
House Team
Dr. Kurt Gurley (UF)*
Dr. Greg Kopp (visiting from the University of Western Ontario)
Dr. Mani Subramanian (FIT)
Sean-Paul Ferrara (UF)
Collette Blessing (FIU)
Francisco Garcia (FIT)
Rob Davis (UF)
Tower Team
| Truck 78 pulling T1 | Dr. Forrest Masters (FIU)* Alex Cuesta (FIU) |
| Truck 80 pulling T2 | Jimmy Jesteadt (UF) Joey Lieberman (UF) |
| Truck 57 pulling T3 | Ryan Chancey (UF) Kristen Prandt (UF) |
| FIU Dually pulling T0 | Victor Camps (FIU) Johann Weeks (UF) |
| Truck 66 pulling T5 | Dustin Davison (UF) Jesus Jayaro (UF) |
The house team will leave tonight. The tower team is finishing repairs and expects to leave in the early morning. The FCMP has received permission to deploy towers at Pensacola Airport, Okaloosa Regional Airport, Panama City-Bay County International Airport, and at park in Niceville.
The FCMP will use the legacy cellular system to transmit real-time summaries of weather conditions. The satellite transmission system is not operational. Instructions to access this data will be posted shortly.
July 9, 12:00 PM Central
The house team instrumented a project home near Navarre and plans to continue westward–the objective today is to instrument 4-5 houses.
After a long night, the tower team finished wiring and fabrication of the necessary parts to make T5 operational (real-time transmission is not planned for this deployment). On the trip to the Panhandle, the intercooler for the turbocharger on one of the trucks lost a hose clamp, forcing the convoy to halt for repairs. Afterward, the team split into two groups. The first group is traveling to Panama City Airport (2) and will meet up with the second team at Destin Airport (4). Pensacola Airport (6) will likely be the final stop before the 11:00 NHC advisory. The map below illustrates these locations and other sites under consideration.
It remains unclear how many towers will transmit in real-time. The FCMP was upgrading the existing cellular system to a satellite-based technology when Dennis formed. At least two towers will transmit.