NASA Langley Flight Ops Center, Bangor Maine
Atlantic THORpex Regional Campaign
Alliance Icing Research Study II

Mission Summary for Dec 05, 2003

Today's flight mission was very successful as it contributed toward all major campaign objectives, i.e. ATREC, satellite validation, and AIRS-II. The ER-2 flew through an AIRS-II icing interest region prior to under-flight of the Aqua track, where it was joined by the UND citation dropping sondes from below (at 37 kft), and then over-flew the NOAA G-4 as it dropped sondes within a high-sensitivity ATREC region. The ER-2 flight duration was from 10:15 AM - 4:45 PM (local), and no instrument failures were reported. The target scenes covered a variety of conditions desired by the experiment scientific objectives. These included a variety of cloud conditions, such as medium-level altocumulus over the Aqua track flown by the ER-2 and Citation, as well as low-level cumulus, thunderstorms, and extensive high cirrus in the ATREC region covered by the ER-2 and G-4. In addition, turbulence was reported by both the ER-2 and Citation; 4 time periods of light turbulence were noted by the ER-2 pilot, and the Citation encountered moderate turbulence on the northern part of its Aqua-coincident track (specifically, near 38 N / 70 W between 1635-1640 GMT; this turbulence may have been associated with developing cumulonimbus visible to the east by the Citation flight crew as they were southbound).

GOES-12 vis image (05 Dec 03 17:45 Z) showing NASA ER-2 and Univ ND Citation flight track

ER-2 tracks on   visible and infrared image.   Citation tracks on   visible and infrared image.

• NASA ER-2 Flight Track overlayed on GOES-12 satellite
  
  • JavaScript Loop:   Visible,   Infrared
    
  • Animated GIF Loop:   Visible,  Infrared
    
  • VIS image:   15:30,  15:45,  16:15,  16:30,  16:45,  17:15,  17:30,  17:45,  18:15,  18:30,  18:45,  19:15,  19:32,  19:45,  20:02,  20:15,  20:32,  20:45,  21:15,  21:32,  21:45 
    
  • IR image:   15:30,  15:45,  16:15,  16:30,  16:45,  17:15,  17:30,  17:45,  18:15,  18:30,  18:45,  19:15,  19:32,  19:45,  20:02,  20:15,  20:32,  20:45,  21:15,  21:32,  21:45 
    

• UND Citation Flight Track overlayed on GOES-12 satellite
  
  • JavaScript Loop:   Visible,   Infrared
    
  • Animated GIF Loop:   Visible,  Infrared
    
  • VIS image:   15:30,  15:45,  16:15,  16:30,  16:45,  17:15,  17:30,  17:45,  18:15,  18:30,  18:45,  19:15,  19:32 
    
  • IR image:   15:30,  15:45,  16:15,  16:30,  16:45,  17:15,  17:30,  17:45,  18:15,  18:30,  18:45,  19:15,  19:32 
    

• GOES-12 Derived Cloud Products from NASA Langley (Pat Minnis's group).

• Aircraft Navigation Data:   
  • Citation navigation and meteorological data written in NASA Ames format
  • NASA ER-2 (flight 04-6022)

• UND Citation Dropsondes (more available on quicklook link):   
  • Dropsonde 1 -    Time of launch: 16:47:42       Location of launch: 38:23 N 70:07 W    RH, T plot    Skew-T plot
  • Dropsonde 2 -    Time of launch: 17:40:06       Location of launch: 36:03 N 69:21 W    RH, T plot    Skew-T plot
  • Dropsonde 3 -    Time of launch: 17:50:11       Location of launch: 36:49 N 69:36 W   RH, T plot    Skew-T plot
  • Dropsonde 4 -    Time of launch: 18:01:11       Location of launch: 37:38 N 69:52 W   RH, T plot    Skew-T plot