Why do they call those planes that fly into hurricanes hurricane hunters if they already know where it is?

Question

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Answer 1

Hurricane Hunters are used mainly to "hunt" for data.   The collected  data are then used to determine whether an area of disturbed weather over the tropical waters has become an organized tropical system.  If it has become organized to the point where a closed surface wind circulation was found, then the system will be given a name if it has reached either tropical storm strength or hurricane strength.  The collected data from the hurricane hunters will also be looked closely at to determine whether the local enviroment will continue to support the development of this system.

Answer 2

Probably because it sounds better than "Hurricane Observation Planes". The people that fly those planes into hurricanes have to have a pretty good set of gonads to have the guts to do it. So, I will defer to their judgement.

To get psychological about it, remember that term was coined when the only people on the plane were men. Highly skilled, highly gutsy men who probably had a pretty healthy ego, justified by the type of men they were, would not come up with a term that wasn't as manly as the task they were doing. Bless their little hearts.  

Answer 3

They are called "hurricane hunters" because these planes are heavily equipped with computers containing a lot of weather information, especially radar that can detect hurricanes which these planes can fly into and measure how strong the hurricanes are.....