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).
VISST Icing Risk Image (5th Dec 03 17:45 Z) showing Univ ND Citation flight track |
Citation tracks on: Cloud Phase Droplet Radius 10.7 um BT Eff. Cloud Height Icing Risk ER-2 tracks on: Cloud Phase Droplet Radius 10.7 um BT Eff. Cloud Height Icing Risk |
UND Citation Flight Track overlayed on GOES-12 Derived Cloud Products
- JavaScript Loop:
Icing Risk, Cloud Phase, Droplet Radius, 10.7 um BT, Eff. Cloud Height, - Animated GIF Loop:
Icing Risk, Cloud Phase, Droplet Radius, 10.7 um BT, Eff. Cloud Height, - Icing Risk Images:
15:15, 15:45, 16:15, 16:45, 17:15, 17:45, 18:15, 18:45, 19:15, 19:45, - Cloud Phase Images:
15:15, 15:45, 16:15, 16:45, 17:15, 17:45, 18:15, 18:45, 19:15, 19:45, - Droplet Radius Images:
15:15, 15:45, 16:15, 16:45, 17:15, 17:45, 18:15, 18:45, 19:15, 19:45, - 10.7 um Brightness Temperature Images:
15:15, 15:45, 16:15, 16:45, 17:15, 17:45, 18:15, 18:45, 19:15, 19:45, - Effective Cloud Height Images:
15:15, 15:45, 16:15, 16:45, 17:15, 17:45, 18:15, 18:45, 19:15, 19:45,
NASA ER-2 Flight Track overlayed on GOES-12 Derived Cloud Products
- JavaScript Loop:
Icing Risk, Cloud Phase, Droplet Radius, 10.7 um BT, Eff. Cloud Height, - Animated GIF Loop:
Icing Risk, Cloud Phase, Droplet Radius, 10.7 um BT, Eff. Cloud Height, - Icing Risk Images:
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, 21:15, 21:32, 21:45, - Cloud Phase Images:
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, 21:15, 21:32, 21:45, - Droplet Radius Images:
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, 21:15, 21:32, 21:45, - 10.7 um Brightness Temperature Images:
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, 21:15, 21:32, 21:45, - Effective Cloud Height Images:
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, 21:15, 21:32, 21:45,
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
- 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
