During a flight into Hurricane Irene before she made land-fall, Tech. Sgt. Amy Lee, a Dropsonde Operator with the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron's Hurricane Hunters, launches a dropsonde from the aircraft during an eye penetration. A series of dropsondes are released into the storm's eye during each pass in order to collect true wind speeds and other critical information that the National Hurricane Center uses to form more accurate predictions of the storm's path. Any Hurricane Hunter will agree that their job entails long hours and lots of eye drops. In fact, a typical hurricane mission lasts 10-12 hours and involves four to five end-to-end trips into the eye of the storm, each time administering eye drops necessary for gathering data needed to more accuractly predict its path. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Justin Pearce)