Chief Scientist: Westwater/Watson Flight Director: Damiano Doppler Radar: Shepherd Pilots: Kennedy/Tenneson Cloud Physics: --- Data Technician: Pradas Radiometer: Westwater Systems Engineer: McNamara Observers: Trokhimouski, Kennedy (media), Strehl (media) Takeoff Time: 1702 UTC Landing Time: 2223 UTC Official Mission Duration: 5.5 hrs Mission Breakdown VORTEX: 0.0 hrs ARM: 5.5 hrs Number of Data Tapes Used: Radar: 1 Cloud Physics: 1 Video: 3Data Systems Log
Radar Data System Log Time On(UTC) Time Off(UTC) Comments Tape #1 1719 LF only 1925 start TA 2150 Radar down Cloud Physics Log Time On(UTC) Time Off(UTC) Comments 1655 2205 ETL Radiometer Log Time On (UTC) Time Off (UTC) Comments 1655 2205 Excellent data
A mid-level disturbance moved across central Oklahoma with light
showers. The flight plan was to visit the Purcell Boundary Facility (BF) and
the Central Facility (CF) for calibration and comparison soundings. Then
as time permits, we would visit other BFs.
The P-3 departed OKC at 1702 UTC heading for Purcell. The weather
at Purcell was overcast As (altostratus) between 9000' and 17,000' AGL with
some tops in the area to 19,500' AGL. The aircraft sounding was extended to
FL200 encountering light rime icing on the ascent and descent soundings.
We continued to Vici at FL080 meeting with problems with air
traffic control who would not allow us to descend. We circled Vici
for some time hoping to descend but to no avail. We went on to Hillsboro
BF finally obtaining clearance to FL040 (~2600' AGL) finding ourselves
in a Sc deck. We flew through several precipitation regions with tops
to 6 km observed on the tail radar. I would hesitate to call the
precipitation regions convective since the bright band was always clearly
visible. However, the precipitation regions were cellular and heavily
sheared to the east.
Our track to the CF took us through more showers with tops again
reaching 6 km. Our ascent/descent soundings began at 2013 UTC with several
deviations due to air traffic control. The ascent sounding may be somewhat
disturbed due to climbing in a precipitation region east of the CF. The
descent sounding should be more representative of the CF sounding.
Our tour of the BF sites continued as we tracked eastward to the
Morris BF at FL040, and then back to Purcell at 500' AGL. We returned to
OKC at 2223 UTC consuming 5.5 hours of flight time. 8.4 ARM hours remain.
Irv Watson