Flight Number: RF3 / 970122
Date: 970122
Proposed T/O Time (UTC): 0900
Primary Mission: Systematic Survey
Aircraft Crew:
Scientific Crew
Chief Scientist: Wakimoto
Doppler Scientist: Hildebrand, Roux
Cloud Physics Scientist:
Observers: Bob Gall, Jeff Keeler
Observer: Stephan Uri, Brian Bosart
Observer: Cheng Liu, Huachenq Qui
Aircraft ID: Electra N308D
Base of Operations: Shannon
Alternate Mission: --
Flight Crew
RAF Project Manager: Laursen
Pilot: Boynton
Co-Pilot: Heiting
Flight Engineer: Brandon, Ringleman
RAF Tech: Zrubek, Namari
ELDORA Engineer: Loew
Location: Shannon
Mission Briefing (including proposed flight patterns):
Take off Time (UTC): 0901 Landing Time (UTC): 1542 Location: Shannon
Official Mission Duration: 7 hours (from Flight Director)
Tapes Utilized: Data Sys.: Radar: WARDS: Video:
FASTEX Aircraft Chief Scientist Event Log
Flight Number: RF3 / 970122 Page 1 of 1
Date: 970112 Aircraft ID: Electra N308D Scientist taking flight notes: Hildebrand
Time Position Events & Comments
(UTC) (Lat, Lon)
0856 Taxi, power transfer caused all ELDORA components to go down.
090135 52.694, Takeoff Shannon, climbing to 4200 m for ferry to point 1.
-8.925
0919 52.3, ELDORA up. The power bump caused all ELDORA components to be recycled,
-10.55 including transmitter reheat, etc.
0934 51.96, Beginning descent from 4200 m to flight level for leg 1.
-11.96
0938 Chip 4 on aft radar is bad. Restarting. Reseating the cards and restarting
the data system.
0942 51.4, At point 1.
-12.5
1000 51.89, Crossing the cold front. A weak band of convection can be seen on the nose
-14.3 radar. There is a sharp wind shift, and about a 2 deg drop in temperature.
1004 It appears that chip 4 is really missing on the aft radar. We will switch to
the "sensitivity2" header, which has 3 frequencies and lower along-track
resolution (860m) but best long range sensitivity. It is probably preferable
for this mission. The data from this flight leg should be usable, but with
some additional noise in the velocities and mis-calibrated reflrectivites.
1021 52.1, Past a cell with about 40 dBZ Zmax. Cells are sheared to the north.
-16.6
1027 52.15, We are well post-cold frontal here. T=2.7C, r=4.7 g/kg. There are still
-16.8 intermittent areas of small convective cells, that are sheared to the north.
1042 52.28, We are flying past more convective cells spaced quasi-regularly.
-18.5
1047 52.23, Now we are in a slightly sunny area with a slight overcast.
-18.67
105330 52.35,-19. At point 2, (there is a small cell located there). We are switching to the
25 "sensitivity 2" header (3 frequencies, 860m along track resolution). The
improvement in sensitivity is quite noticeable.
111135 51.15,-19. At point 3, turning east.
39
113720 50.9,-17.1 Two bands of cirrus are seen now, to the north and south.
3
1139 Now cirrus only to the south (z=4-9km). The moisture is increasing to the
east, and this leg is warmer and moister than to the north.
114450 50.8, We are in solid returns from the surface to 8 km. P-3 reports more
-16.44 convection to the south.
1150 50.75,-15. The clouds are only 5 km deep now.
94
1153 50.73, There is a suggestion of a wave in the horizontal wind field over the last
-15.64 degree of longitude or so. We are seeing a regular change in wind direction
and speed along the flight track. Possibly this is also seen in the
corresponding winds on flight leg 1.
1157 Increase in humidity
1159 Increase in temperature, and a sharp change in winds when crossing the
front. the peak reflectivities are up to 45-50 dBZ. Across the front, there
was a 2 deg peak in temperature and an increase in humidity. The temperature
sensor, ATRL, has problem, beginning about this time.
1216 Turning to the south at point 4.
123818 49.27, Turning to the west at point 5.
-13.98
1302 49.52, There are interesting notches or bends in the apparent frontal structure to
-15.98 the north of our present position as we are approaching the front.
1304 49.545, At the front, the winds are dropping and changing to westerly, there is an
-16.07 increase in temperature as we cross the front, and fly through some weak
rainbands. Again there was a temperature excess on this frontal crossing.
1314 49.57, Based on the nose radar, we appear to have been flying on the north side of
-17.08 an east-west rainband of some sort, possibly a portion of this kinky cold
front.
131928 49.59, At point 6, turning south.
-17.5
1337 48.5, At point 7, turning east.
-18.0
1347 48.34, We are in a chaotic area with east-west bands and very disorganized winds,
-17.09 and appear to be flying right through the rainbands in this area. There
continue to be large changes in winds and in thermal structure along the
flight legs.
1350 48,33, The winds have come around to the south now and we are finally on the east
-16.6 side of the front. The front, here, continues to be disorganized.
135246 48.32, The southerly winds are finally beginning to pick up.
-16.61
1422 47.935, At point 8, and are climbing and returning to Shannon.
-14.05
1440 49.025,-13 We just received a satellite image from NOAA-14 polar orbiter and are able
.34 to see that our flight tracks were laid out of the cold front extending to
the north of the comma head. We, thus, may have been sampling to the north
of where we might have been sampling. The east-west rainbands are thus
associated with the comma head and with circulations therein, and with the
kink in the cold front. The northern boundary of the comma head appears to
have been located between flight paths 3 and 4. The additional data from the
C-130 and P-3 to the south should be quite useful in defining the larger
scale system.
1542 52.694, Landing.
-8.925