Overnight, tropical depression 14 (TD14) gained enough intensity to earn the name Nadine, the 14th tropical storm of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season. Our tropical weather expert, Brian McNoldy says he could only find two others years in 160 years of records in which the 14th storm formed sooner: 1936 and 2011.

Nadine is on a projected path that threatens no land area according to the National Hurricane Center, but a NASA field campaign is taking full advantage of this storm to get deeper insight into how hurricanes develop and intensify.

Flight path of NASA unmanned aircraft and its position over then tropical depression 14 (now Nadine) as of 5:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday. Its altitude at the time was 60,300 feet. (NASA)

Related: From tropical disturbance to hurricane: To be or not to be?

On Tuesday, NASA sent an unmanned Global Hawk into TD14/Nadine on a 26 hour mission to sample the storms environment. It is the longest continuous period a storm has ever been investigated, considerably longer than the capabilities of manned Air Force Hurricane Hunter planes. Climate Centrals Andrew Freedman put it this way: To put that [26 hour flight] in further perspective, the longest regularly scheduled passenger flight is between Singapore and Newark, N.J., which clocks in at a comparatively paltry 18 hours and 55 minutes.

One of two Global Hawks NASA is using to investigate tropical weather systems (NASA) The drone that gazed down on Nadine is one of two Global Hawks NASA will dispatch from Wallops Island, Va. to collect data on tropical systems through early October and again in 2013 and 2014.

The planes are operated from ground control stations at Wallops and Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The mission is formally known as the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3).

NASA video overview of HS3

Reaching altitudes as high as 60,000 feet, the Hawks can fly above the highest-penetrating storms, while its suite of cutting-edge instruments can sense the air all the way down to the ocean surface.

Link: An interactive view of the Hawk aircraft

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NASA drone spies on tropical storm Nadine