|
FIRE-ACE ER-2 FLIGHT LOG |
| Author (Mission Scientist): Platnick, Steve Date: 1998060419 Submitted at: Sat Jun 6 22:11:06 UT 1998 |
Mission 10 ER-2 Sortie 98-075 Thursday, June 4, 1998 Steve Platnick: Flight Scientist |
Objectives: Overfly region between the SHEBA ice camp (76°51'N, 167°30'W) and an area about 80 km to the east to overfly cirrus being advected over the region from the northwest. Flight useful for cloud remote sensing and cloud masking validation, and sea ice retrievals in the presence of changing cloud cover. Overfly the ARM site on outgoing and incoming flight legs.
Coordinations included:
The ER-2 overflew the ARM site and then headed northwest towards the SHEBA ice station. Then flew four parallel north-south flight legs of about 280 km in length, offset by 40 km, starting from the east of the ice station and ending over the station. The ER-2 overflew the ARM site on the return to Ft. Wainwright. The AirMISR was scheduled for six runs, twice over the ice station and four times during the parallel flight legs. All six runs failedfor an unknown reason.
Pilot report: The ER-2 pilot reported solid undercast cloud cover over the entire mission.
Extensive clouds cover over the ice station in the morning report. At 1600 UTC, the radar showed cloud layers at the surface, 0.8-1.0 km, and 6.5-8.5 km. Satellite imagery showed cloud tops around 3-3.5 km. Light surface winds out of the southwest at 5 kts. A band of cirrus running southwest to northeast was expected to move over the ER-2 operations area during the morning, with thinner cirrus likely in the eastern flight legs. The cirrus was associated with a low to the northwest of the ice station. At 2000 UTC (about 45 minutes before the ER-2 began its eastern most leg), the ice station reported surface winds at 22 kts, 190° and a ceilometer cloud base of about 0.2 km. Radar showed two cloud layers: a lower one just over the surface up to 0.5 km and a higher layer between 4.5-7 km, and intermittently up to 9 km.
