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

Mission Summary for Nov 25, 2003

Based on the forecasts and mission plans of the previous evening, UND Citation was poised for takeoff at 1300 UTC from Ottawa to release dropsondes in the training area and then replace the Twin Otter at 1430 UTC for Maneuvers 1 and 3 at Mirabel. However, no clouds developed in the area at that time and the takeoff for the Twin Otter was delayed until 1600 UTC with the C130 scheduled to fly those missions at 1700 UTC. The forecast was for the low clouds at Mirabel to last only a couple of hours, so the flight plan was adjusted to drop the sondes later and procede back to Bangor with the hope of finding icing conditions farther to the east in northern Maine. Four sondes were released at 37,000 ft in the training area with a spiral descent down to 26,000 ft. The aircraft headed back to Bangor at FL270 with the plan to change altitude when the Citation reached significant cloudiness. A very shallow low layer of broken stratocumulus was present that gradually cleared during the approach to Bangor. A small layer of glaciated altostratus well above FL270 (temperature -42 C) was observed, but nothing with any icing potential was seen to the east of the Bangor area, so the aircraft landed at Bangor at 1756 UTC. The total flight time for the mission was 2.5 hours.

GOES-12 vis image (25 Nov 03 16:32 Z) showing Univ ND Citation flight track

Citation tracks on   infrared image

• UND Citation Flight Track overlayed on GOES-12 satellite
  
  • JavaScript Loop:   Visible,   Infrared
    
  • Animated GIF Loop:   Visible,  Infrared
    
  • VIS image:   15:15,  15:32,  15:45,  16:02,  16:15,  16:32,  16:45,  17:02,  17:15,  17:32,  17:45 
    
  • IR image:   15:15,  15:32,  15:45,  16:02,  16:15,  16:32,  16:45,  17:02,  17:15,  17:32,  17:45 
    

• 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

• UND Citation Dropsondes:   
  • Dropsonde 1 -    Time of launch: 16:05:35       Location of launch: 46:35 N 73:36 W    RH, T plot    Skew-T plot
  • Dropsonde 2 -    Time of launch: 16:11:14       Location of launch: 47:00 N 73:22 W    RH, T plot    Skew-T plot
  • Dropsonde 3 -    Time of launch: 16:15:15       Location of launch: 47:20 N 73:21 W   RH, T plot    Skew-T plot
  • Dropsonde 4 -    Time of launch: 16:31:30       Location of launch: 46:24 N 73:46 W   RH, T plot    Skew-T plot