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

Mission Summary for Dec 13, 2003

ER2 flight cancelled due to strong crosswinds in Bangor. Citation flew to cyclogenesis region off the mid-Atlantic coast to sample the environment ahead of the impending east coast storm. This day's flights were in support of ATReC and were designed to get soundings through the high sensitivity region south of Bangor, off the coast of Virginia. The first leg of the mission began with a takeoff from Bangor at 1345Z, landing at Nantucket for fuel at 1451Z. The Citation departed Nantucket at 1451Z, but instead of heading southeast, the aircraft was vectored west and not allowed to fly to the point as scheduled. The combination of this detour and very strong westerly winds made the original flight profile impossible, so the Citation landed at Norfolk at 1833Z to discuss the new flight profile. The Citation then departed Norfolk at 2004Z and dropped sondes in an area of interest along a line from (N32, W77) to (N38.9, W72.2). A Total of 8 dropsondes were released along this line from 2129Z to 2251Z. With the exception of the last sonde, all were released from an altitude of 33,000 ft; the last sonde was released during descent at 29,000 ft. The Citation then continued northward, landing at Nantucket for fuel at 2341Z. The Citation departed Nantucket at 0115Z and landed in Bangor at 0220Z.

GOES-12 vis image (13 Dec 2003 18:15 Z) showing NOAA G-4 and Univ ND Citation flight tracks

All 4 legs of Citation tracks on  visible and infrared image.

• UND Citation Flight Track overlayed on GOES-12 satellite
  
  • JavaScript Loop:   Visible,   Infrared
    
  • Animated GIF Loop:   Visible,  Infrared
    
  • VIS image:   13:45,  14:15,  14:30,  14:45,  16:30,  16:45,  17:15,  17:30,  17:45,  18:15,  18:30,  20:02,  20:15,  20:32,  20:45,  21:15,  21:32,  21:45 
    
  • IR image:   13:45,  14:15,  14:30,  14:45,  16:30,  16:45,  17:15,  17:30,  17:45,  18:15,  18:30,  20:02,  20:15,  20:32,  20:45,  21:15,  21:32,  21:45,  22:02,  22:15,  22:32,  22:45,  23:02,  23:15,  23:32,  01:15,  01:32,  01:45,  02:02,  02:15 
    

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

• Aircraft Navigation Data:   
  • Citation leg #1 navigation and meteorological data written in NASA Ames format
  • Citation leg #2 navigation and meteorological data written in NASA Ames format
  • Citation leg #3 navigation and meteorological data written in NASA Ames format
  • Citation leg #4 navigation and meteorological data written in NASA Ames format

• UND Citation Dropsondes (more available on quicklook link):   
  • Dropsonde 1 -    Time of launch: 21:29:21       Location of launch: 77 42.71' W, 32 06.59' N    RH, T plot    Skew-T plot
  • Dropsonde 2 -    Time of launch: 21:41:29       Location of launch: 77 00.29' W, 33 08.97' N    RH, T plot    Skew-T plot
  • Dropsonde 3 -    Time of launch: 21:52:09       Location of launch: 76 20.01' W, 34 03.22' N    RH, T plot    Skew-T plot
  • Dropsonde 4 -    Time of launch: 22:03:45       Location of launch: 75 35.12' W, 35 02.65' N    RH, T plot    Skew-T plot
  • Dropsonde 5 -    Time of launch: 22:15:22       Location of launch: 74 48.12' W, 36 00.68' N    RH, T plot    Skew-T plot
  • Dropsonde 6 -    Time of launch: 22:27:58       Location of launch: 73 58.61' W, 37 01.26' N    RH, T plot    Skew-T plot
  • Dropsonde 7 -    Time of launch: 22:39:49       Location of launch: 73 04.01' W, 37 54.98' N    RH, T plot    Skew-T plot
  • Dropsonde 8 -    Time of launch: 22:51:51       Location of launch: 72 14.37' W, 38 51.89' N    RH, T plot    Skew-T plot