Robbie Hood
Robbie Hood is an atmospheric scientist who studies hurricanes. She was lead scientist for the Convection and Moisture Experiment at NASA and Director of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Early life and education
Hood grew up in Neosho, Missouri and Picayune, Mississippi, where in 1969 she witnessed the devastation of Hurricane Camille and in 1974 the Neosho tornado, sparking a lifelong interest in storms. She earned a BS degree in atmospheric science from the University of Missouri at Columbia and an MS degree in physical meteorology from Florida State University.[Research]
Hood joined the Marshall Space Flight Center in 1986, ultimately leading a team of scientists and engineers to develop passive microwave instrumentation sensors deployed on aircraft to observe precipitation and oceanic winds for the NASA Convection And Moisture Experiment. The team studied events in or near Australia, Brazil, Alaska, the Marshall Islands, Costa Rica and the coastal regions of the United States. Her team also collaborated with lightning researchers at MSFC to simultaneously observe electric field information from the aircraft. Hood was a mission scientist in three NASA research experiments studying hurricane genesis, intensity, precipitation, and landfalling impacts. In 1999, she was the NASA Lead DC-8 Aircraft Scientist for the KWAJalein EXperiment and the NASA ER-2 Aircraft Scientist for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission - Large scale Biosphere- Atmosphere mission.!n September 2008, Hood became the first permanent director of NOAA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program. She led the Sensing Hazards with Operational Unmanned Technology program, using high-altitude drones to measure wind speed and other attributes within storms.