Mission Summary
20080903I1 Aircraft 43RF
Gustav Post-storm Ocean flight 2008

Scientific Crew (43RF)
Lead Project ScientistEric Uhlhorn
AXBT ScientistBen Jaimes de la Cruz (UMiami)

Flight Crew (43RF)
PilotsCarl Newman
Mark Nelson
Flight DirectorJack Parrish
NavigatorTom Gallagher
Flt. Eng.Dewie Floyd
Data TechJeff Smith
Terry Lynch
Elec. TechDamon San Souci


Figure 1. Flight track with AXBT drop locations, and altitmeter-derived heat content distribution. Red asterisks are failed probes. The actual track of Gustav is shown tracking directly over the pre-storm ocean experimental domain.

Mission Plan :

N43RF will fly a post-storm mission over the wake of Hurricane Gustav in the Gulf of Mexico. It will leave MacDill AFB, FL at 14:00 UTC, and recover at MacDill AFB, FL by 22:00.

Mission Summary :

Take off Landing
MacDill AFB, FL13:59 UTC MacDill AFB, FL20:53 UTC

The flight track was designed to sample the ocean wake of Gstav from the Loop Current to 28°N. This track was generally over the same area sampled prior to Gustav on 28 August. The flight was at 8000' unpressurized for free-fall AXBT launches. The sampling strategy called for dropping ASBTs over 0.5° longitude over the Loop Current and north Gulf of Mexico, and every 0.25° along east-to-west legs at the northern boundary of the Loop Current. A total of 68 AXBTs were dropped, of which 53 returned good profiles. The vast majority of bad launches were from channel 14 (Spartan) probes. Additionally, a few channel 16 (Sippican) probes failed, likely due to reciever problems. Only one channel 12 (Sippican) probe failed to return a clean temperature profile. In summary, storm-induced cooling relative to pre-storm conditions was found to be < 1°C in the Loop Current, increasing to around 3°C at the northern part of the experimental domain.

Problems :

No major problems, other than those associated with bad probes discussed above.

Erich Uhlhorn
09/26/2008

Mission Data :

1 second data file | NetCDF data file

Flight Data


Flight track

Temperature and Moisture

Wind and Atlitude


Page last updated October 15, 2008
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