Because the Air Force Weather Squadron had evacuated Keesler AFB in advance of Hurricane Ivan's projected landfall on the Gulf Coast, NHC tasked NOAA 43 for the 00, 03 and 06 UTC fixes. Although the fix requirements limited our flexibility for coastal passes, Tom Shepherd and Peter Siegal came up with a pattern that would allow at least one east-west pass from Panama City to Mobile Bay. As H Ivan was forecast to be quite close to the coast by 0400, we thought we might be able to sneak in another leg along the coast as we did our final fix.
Teams from Texas Tech (TTU), the Florida Coastal Monitoring Program (FCMP), the Center for Severe Weather Research (CSWR), University of Alabama-Huntsville (UAH) and University of Louisiana-Monroe (ULM) had deployed portable Doppler radars (CSWR), wind towers (TTU, ULM, and FCMP), and a profiler (UAH). The teams were concentrated on the east side of Mobile Bay, anticpating being in strong onshore flow.

Mission Summary :

NOAA 43 departed MacDill at 2256 UTC. We reached the IP and turned at 2340 to head NW to the center for the first fix. 43 continued NW to the coast and then turned S at 2335 and flew over the BURL1 C-Man station. By 0110 we were headed NE back to the center. After fixing the center we flew to the coast and by 0210 we were headed W along the Gulf Coast. We deployed several GPS sondes along the coast, attempting to drop them near the mobile platforms clustered on the E side of Mobile Bay. At this time the winds were almost parallel to the coast so this leg passed quickly!
At 0225 43 turned S offshore of Dauphin Island (DPIA1 C-Man station) and completed another center fix at 0238. The aircraft continued on a long leg S to map out the wind radii. This was followed by a long run NE and then N up to the coast to measure wind in the E side of the storm. Then SW back to the center at 0407, continuing to a point SW of BURL1.
At this point Mike drew up a plan to head E to a point S of Panama City, then N to the coast, followed by one more run along the coast (where the mobile platforms would now be experiencing onshore flow) and then a final fix before heading home. The timing would have worked, but then the Air Force showed up on the scene to take over the reconnaissance. So we had to turn at 0512 to head back to N of the center to complete one more fix at 0538 UTC. After the fix 43 turned SE out of the eye and headed back to base.
NOAA 43 landed back at MacDill at 0706 UTC.

Acknowledgments:

Prof. John Schroeder, Becca Paulsen, Dr. Josh Wurman, Dr. Forrest Masters, Dr. Rob Howard, Prof. Kevin Knupp and Justin Walters kept us apprised of the latest mobile platform positions which were crucial for our attempts to target their sites with GPS drops. Tom Shepherd and the rest of the AOC flight crew were helpful in modifying the flight track to help us achieve the research goals while still maintaining the operational integrity of the mission. This flight came after 2 weeks of almost constant flying, and the AOC crew maintained their professional yet friendly attitude throughout the flight.

Mission Data :

Radar Images from Mobile 88D

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