RF13: 10-6-2002 17:12 - 22:35
 

P3 Flight Log:

- A cold front was predicted to move southward over southwestern Kansas and intersect the dryline in a triple point north of Liberal, Kansas. Unfortunately, the cloud radar for the King Air was down and the Falcon was in Illinois to replace their tires. The forecast was for the triple point to be capped but the cold front northeast of the point to fire with convection later in the day. After much discussion during a conference call in the morning, it was decided to target the cold front northeast of the triple point rather than the triple point. The IP for the P-3, King Air (san cloud radar) and the LearJet was 37 degrees 30? and 100 degrees 00?. Takeoff for the P-3 was 12:01 pm CDT. We immediately discovered that the Winds Display and the CAPPIs would not work on our laptops. After a great deal of effort, it was determined that the internet hub near the scientists was dead. A temporary solution was found after a lot of rewiring and crossing our fingers (Thank you Grant Gray!). We decided to put the Lear Jet on hold since we had not set up on the boundary. We began to do a box pattern around the cold front around 1:30 pm around a center IP 38.5 and 100.1. The orientation of the box was approximately 40-220 degrees. We contacted the Ops center with an updated IP and orientation so that the lat/lon could be transmitted to the LearJet. The first set of drops occurred at approximately 2:30 pm. We continued to perform box patterns around the cold front and were well-coordinated with the FC and the ground armada. Unfortunately, we experienced a heating problem and LEANDRE was shut down at 3:40 pm. ELDORA was also reaching a critical temperature and it was decided to shut down ELDORA and climb to a higher altitude to cool down the equipment at 3:45 pm. At the same time, we heard that the LearJet was starting its second leg of drops. At approximately 4:10 pm we descended back to the boundary layer. A new box pattern on the cold front was set up in 15 min. However, by that time convection had fired along the cold front. The OPS Center gave us a new IP northeast of our original point but that was also surrounded by convection. A second IP north of S-Pol was given to us. This location was near the original triple point. We flew to that area and descended to low levels. The second trip problem was terrible so we attempted to change the ELDORA header. This caused ELDORA to crash for about 45 minutes. It appears to be a bad idea to change headers in the middle of a flight when the temperatures are hot. We were asked by S-Pol to fly over Homestead to make in situ and LEANDRE measurements of a refractivity gradient. At the end of the pattern ELDORA was back up and we performed a calibration leg before heading home. In retrospect, it would have been ideal if we could have stayed on the boundary for another 10-15 minutes. However, the overheating of ELDORA and LEANDRE had become critical and I made the decision to pull out of the boundary layer rather than risk damaging the equipment. Landing was at approx. 7:08 pm.


Flight Track:




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