| Aircraft Commander | Ron Moyers |
| Co-pilot | Jason Mansour |
| Co-pilot | Doug MacIntyre |
| Flight Director | Rich Henning |
| Flight Director | Shannon Hefferan |
| Data Technician | Joe Greene |
| Data Technician | Gabe DeFeo |
| Dropsonde Operator | Mike Mascaro |
| Dropsonde Operator | Jeff Newnam |
| None |
 Proposed NOAA 49 track |
 Actual NOAA 49 track |
Mission Plan :
NOAA 49RF will conduct HRD-tasked Extratropical Transition mission into Hurricane Arthur as it was completing the transition just south of Cape Cod. The proposed flight pattern was for a butterfly pattern with three passes over the center of the storm.
|
Prepared by the Hurricane Research Division July 03, 2014 1:53 PM Aircraft: N49RF Proposed takeoff: 04/1730Z
TRACK DISTANCE TABLE
| #
| LAT
| LON
| RAD/AZM
| LEG
| TOTAL
| TIME
|
| deg min
| deg min
| n mi/deg
| n mi
| n mi
| hh:mm
| 2S | 36 42 | 73 30 | 150/210 | 701. | 701. | 1:37
| 3S | 41 13 | 70 09 | 150/030 | 314. | 1015. | 2:21
| 4S | 39 09 | 68 29 | 150/090 | 146. | 1161. | 2:42
| 5S | 39 19 | 74 04 | 120/270 | 260. | 1422. | 3:18
| 6S | 40 51 | 72 31 | 100/330 | 116. | 1538. | 3:35
| 7S | 37 24 | 69 44 | 150/150 | 244. | 1781. | 4:09
| | ||||||||||||||
Mission Summary :
| Take off | Landing
| MacDill AFB, FL | 17:00 UTC
| MacDill AFB, FL | 23:10 UTC
| | ||
Hurricane Arthur was undergoing extratropical transition as the mission began (Fig. 1). Convection was noticeably weaker than during the previous day, the eye had disappeared from satellite imagery, and dry air had moved into the southern semicircle of the storm. The cloud pattern was even more elongated in the north-south direction than during the previous day, and the convective maximum was shifting toward the left side of the storm.
During the first pass of the aircraft over the center of Arthur (Fig. 2), the Doppler radar was still sensing wind speeds of nearly 90 kt at 1-km altitude, suggesting that the system remained at hurricane strength. Also noteworthy is the elongation of the center toward the northwest at all levels. During the second pass (Fig. 3), the wind speeds remained at the same intensity , but the clongation of the center was proceeding rapidly with only a few strong wind vectors on the west side. Dropwindsonde data also shows the center elongation.
By the third pass (Fig. 4), the northwest side was recovering a bit, suggesting a halt to the transition, though some elongation of the center remained. The wind field was noticeably larger than during previous missions, an important part of the transformation during extratropical transition. 20 sondes were deployed.
Problems :
None
 Flight track |
 Temperature and Moisture |
 Wind and Atlitude |
Flight Director's log | NetCDF data | 1 second data | serial data