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IFEX daily log

Thursday, September 8, 2005

N43RF was tasked for another overnight flight, with fix responsibilities, at 09, 12, and 15 UTC. There would be a rotating figure-4 pattern flown at 5000 ft altitude. NHC sondes would be dropped at the turn points, the center, and at the flight-level radius of maximum winds. These sondes, in addition to the radar observations, would provide data for the Frequent Monitoring experiment, which would again be piggy-backed onto this tasked mission. The tail radar would be flown in F/AST mode for all legs except the outbound west leg, where it would be run in continuous mode.

Satellite imagery from before the time of takeoff (Fig. 98) show that outflow was significantly inhibited on the southeast side of the storm. This indicates southeasterly shear, which was confirmed by a CIMSS shear analysis valid at the same time (Fig. 99). A visible image taken several hours later (Fig. 100) shows distinct banding features wrapping from the west around to the north side of the storm, with some convective elements also forming on the south side of the circulation center. The presence of growing deep convection is also supported by a radar image from Melbourne (Fig. 101), which shows a clear eye in the reflectivity field and a solid patch of deep convection on the south side of the eyewall. The banding feature seen in the visible image is also clear in the radar image, wrapping from south of the center around to the west and then north of the storm. The rain on the downwind (south) side of the band is primarily solid stratiform, while moving upwind (around the west to the north) of the band the band consists of more individual convective elements.

During the flight the storm deepened from the previous mission to a minimum pressure of 987 hPa, with maximum surface winds of 50-55 kt. This is the fourth mission in two days for this storm, making it a great frequent-monitoring case. N43RF obtained F/AST data in all quadrants, and we were able to produce Doppler analyses during the flight and transmit them to the ground. One leg was in continuous mode for vertical incidence, and the cloud physics worked well. All in all it was a very successful mission.

As in the previous day, N42RF had a tasked mission during, this time with a takeoff time at 0130 UTC on Friday. For this mission there was also the NOAA Frequent Monitoring and Ocean Winds experiments piggy-backed onto it. As in the previous day, the plan called for a figure-4 pattern to be flown, this time at 5000 ft.


Figure 98. GOES-East infrared image valid 0345 UTC September 8 2005.


Figure 99. CIMSS 850-200 hPa shear analysis (contours, kt) valid 03 UTC September 8 2005.


Figure 100. GOES-East visible image valid 1245 UTC September 8 2005.


Figure 101.Melbourne WSR-88D reflectivity (shaded, dBZ) valid 1330 UTC September 8 2005.

Rob Rogers
HRD Field Program director


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