posted Thu Sep 17 07:34:34 1998 PDT
| Date of Mission: | 20 August, 1998 |
| Daily Mission Scientist: | Ed Zipser |
| Deputy Daily Mission Scientist: | Gerry Heymsfield |
| DC-8 Scientist: | Ed Zipser |
| S-POL Scientist: | Gerry Heymsfield |
| Project Scientist: | Robbie Hood |
| UND Citation II Scientist: | Jeff Stith |
| Water Vapor Scientist: | Harvey Melfi |
| Nowcasters: | Richard Wohlman |
Forecast verified well for synoptic track region and KCOF. Rain remained in area off e east coast throughout the day, and then moved on shore right at DC-8 landing time sing a bit of a delay due to the shower induced x-winds of 29kts. Once it passed thru in about 30 minutes) conditions returned to normal. Bonnie intensified to near strength and continued along track. KCOF is in Hurricane condition 4, terrorist t Alpha (whatever that does for us).
| DC8 Tail Number: | NASA 817 |
| Sortie: | 980407 |
| Pilot: | Gordon Fullerton Dick Ewers |
| Mission Manager: | Chris Miller |
| Navigator: | Russ Padula |
| Take Off: | 1628 UTC (98/08/20) |
| Landing: | 2120 UTC (98/08/20) |
| Duration: | 4.87 hrs |
TEFLUN mission coordinating the Citation, DC-8, and ER-2 in/over precipitation within 90 nm range of S-POL, including TRMM pass at 1852 UTC/20 August.
Highly successful mission with the DC-8 and Citation (ER-2 had to cancel due strong crosswinds at PAFB). Target was a large area of stratiform precipitation offshore which evolved from mixed convective and stratiform during the mission. All flight tracks were within the swath of the TRMM PR. DC-8 was on research legs from ~1651-2040 and Citation on research legs from ~1646-1955 UTC, so conditions were sampled from 2h before to 2h after the overpass. While the aircraft legs were only 60-80 km long, and were entirely contained within a 60 km radius from 28 15 N 80 00 W, within 100 km of the coast, the stratiform region was representative of a huge area extending over some 200-300 km, probably an MCC. During the mission, the dropsondes from the DC-8 documented the change from near-saturated conditions to very dry "onion" sounding characteristic of unsaturated downdrafts, with T/Td 22/10=B0C at 900 mb. This air accelerated toward the coast during the mission, resulting in a period of strong east winds at Patrick AFB and surface Td decrease from 25 to 21=B0C.
Microphysically, the Citation was sampling particles from the rain layer at 3 km through the melting band to about 8 km (-22=B0C). The CPI an= d 2DC probe worked throughout although heavy rain put the CPI into overload. A spiral through the melting band was performed at overpass time.
The DC-8 obtained data at levels between 31 and 37000 ft, with most if not all instruments functioning well. After the Citation departed the area, the DC-8 performed spirals downward and upward through an altitude range from about 10-25000 ft, especially for AMMR but presumably useful for other microphysical sampling. This was done about 50 km SE of the Citation's spiral location, because that portion of the precipitation had weakened too much.
| UND Tail Number: | UND N77ND |
| Pilot: | Kent Streibel |
| Take Off: | 2030 UTC (98/08/20) |
| Landing: | 001 UTC (98/08/21) |
| Duration: | 3.67 hrs |
Stairstep climb (1)and descend (2) and one spiral up offshore between +5 and -29 C. In cloud and precipitation most of the flight. A good characterization of the hydrometeors throught much of the depth of the cloud system. A good flight.
NO 2DP. INS failed during second half of Citation flight due to inverter failure.
Repair inverter. Check out 2DP.
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