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Aug. 18, 1998: (This is the fourth in a series of stories covering the ongoing CAMEX mission to hunt hurricane data in a way not done since the 50s. Other stories are linked in below.) The DC-8 and ER-2 aircraft made a second sortie to match an overflight by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite on Saturday, Aug. 15. At the 1630 UT briefing, we postponed takeoff time for the NASA aircraft by one hour, until 1930. The Mission Scientist traveled to the S-POL radar between ~1700-1810, arriving just in time to participate in the decision (with forecaster Geerts at Patrick AFB) that an additional 30-minute postponement until 2000 was wise, because the convective clouds were not developing into our operational area as rapidly as anticipated. Left: Dr. Marian Klein of the Ocean Remote Sensing Division at NOAA's Environmental Technology Laboratory, Boulder, Colo, inspects the Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer's scanning sensor head under the NASA DC-8 aircraft. (Links to 468x303-pixel, 55KB JPG.) credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA Shortly after launch of all three aircraft at about 2000, and while en route to the first target area about 70 nm NW of S-POL, the University of North Dakota Citation lost cockpit radar and had to abort. The ER-2 and DC-8 were given N-S lines (1 and 2) through a dissipating convective storm, which was worked from about 2043-2123. Just in time for the (2141 UT) TRMM overpass, a larger area including the original target became workable as a formerly strong storm weakened considerably. Right: Dr. Marian Klein (foreground) and Dr. Albin J. Gasiewski of the Ocean Remote Sensing Division at NOAA's Environmental Technology Laboratory, Boulder, Colo, operate the Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer (PSR), a new imaging instrument on board the NASA DC-8 aircraft. (links to 446x284-pixel, 65KB JPG.) credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA The two aircraft were set up along Line 3, WSW-ENE, which they flew 3 times from about 2134-2217, the first leg including the overpass. After 2217, the DC-8 went offshore to drop a sonde and find a clearer area for LASE, while the ER-2 was directed to a solid 110 km (60 nm) N-S line of convective cells which had formed near the merged east coast and west coast sea breeze lines (resembling a zipper on radar). They made one run in each direction over this line of storms, which weakened during the runs. Both aircraft were on the ground by about 2320. Left: Dr. Ramesh Kakar, Earth Science Program Manager at NASA Headquarters, conducts a morning coordination meeting with the CAMEX and TEFLUN teams. (links to 446x270-pixel, 62KB JPG.) credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA Communications at S-POL were excellent from my perspective with all aircraft. Dave Webber did an excellent job on the radio, and Ed Brandes was a major help at S-POL in keeping ahead of the weather and spotting opportunities for flight track changes. A team of three is needed there, especially if the Citation were flying in addition to the two NASA birds.
CAMEX-3 is an interagency project to measure hurricane dynamics at high altitude, a method never employed before over Atlantic storms. From this, scientists hope to understand better how hurricanes are powered and to improve the tools they use to predict hurricane intensity. Lead CAMEX-3 personnel
An overview story (Aug. 12, 1998) describes the program in detail. The study is part of NASA's Earth Science enterprise to better understand the total Earth system and the effects of natural and human-induced changes on the global environment.
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Author: Robbie
Hood and Dave
Dooling
Curator: Linda Porter
NASA Official: Gregory
S. Wilson
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