Sunday, July 17, 2005

N42RF returned to Tampa today, takeoff from San Jose 17 UTC. N43RF had a down day today, in preparation for the tasked mission the following day into Hurricane Emily. The NASA ER-2 also had a down day today, in preparation for some possible missions in the following days.

Hurricane Emily continued to move toward the Yucatan peninsula as a major hurricane. In the East Pacific, convection remained widespread, and there was some indication of rotation in a system at around 13 N 102 W. The system that was flown by the NOAA P-3's showed some evidence of rotation and deep convection around it during the overnight hours, but it was not very impressive in terms of intensity and areal extent. Other areas of deep convection, such as the one at 102 W mentioned previously, were more impressive-looking and appeared to have the potential to develop into a tropical depression.

It was decided today that N43RF would in fact be made available for future IFEX/TCSP flights after the tasked missions into Emily were completed. The aircraft would deploy to Acapulco, however, instead of San Jose, where it would be better- positioned for possible genesis, should it occur. The plan called for N43RF to complete its mission on Monday and return to Tampa, where it would have a down day the following day. It would be available to re-deploy to Acapulco on Wednesday and be ready for possible joint P-3/ER-2 night missions on Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night. After that, N43RF would return back to Tampa for good. It is possible that N43RF would delay its deployment until the following day, if no potential target appeared.

Rob Rogers
HRD Field Program director