Aircraft Commander | Scott Price |
Co-pilot | Cathy Martin |
Co-pilot | Nate Kahn |
Navigator | Tim Gallagher |
Flight Engineer | Ken Heystek |
Flight Engineer | Paul Darby |
Flight Director | Rich Henning |
Data Technician | Todd Richards |
Data Technician | Terry Lynch |
Elec. Technician | Joe Greene |
LPS | Lisa Bucci | HRD |
Radar | Paul Reasor | HRD |
Dropsonde | Brad Klotz | HRD |
![]() Figure 1.TS Javier in relation to DL flow |
![]() Figure 2.TS Javier in relation to shear |
Mission Plan :
The mission is to conduct a DWL experiment into Tropical Storm Javier. The 40kt system is located off the coast of the Baja Peninsula, Mexico in the East Pacific and moving NNE at about 5 knots (Figure 1). It is located under a high pressure system (Figure 2), with shear ranging between 5 to 10 knots. Satellite presentation shows decreasing convection in all quadrants as the storm encounters dry air and cool SSTs. Track guidance show Javier will continue to travel up the coast of the Baja Peninsula until dissipating in the next 2-3 days (Figure 3).
![]() Figure 3.Forecast tracks for Javier |
![]() Figure 4a.Proposed track Figure 4a.Actual track |
Given the long transit time and proximity to land, the plan calls for a single Figure-4 pattern with an initial point (IP) to the east (Figure 4a). Upon completion of the mission, the plane will return to Harlingen, TX.
Prepared by the Hurricane Research Division File: current1.ftk August 20, 2015 Aircraft: N43RF Proposed takeoff: 09/0600Z | |||||||
DROP LOCATION TABLE | |||||||
# | LAT | LON | RAD/AZM | Time | |||
deg min | deg min | n mi/deg | hr:min | ||||
1S | 22 36 | 108 59 | 90/090 | 3:26 | |||
2S | 22 36 | 112 13 | 90/270 | 4:12 | |||
3S | 21 06 | 110 36 | 90/180 | 4:45 | |||
4S | 24 06 | 110 36 | 90/000 | 5:30 |
Take off | Landing
Harligen, TX
| 05:57 UTC
| Harligen, TX
| 12:33 UTC
| |
A Figure-4 pattern was flown, however the IP was shifted to the SE quadrant making the end point over the NE (Figure 4b). The majority of the storm was cloud and precipitation free making it ideal for the DWL. The strongest surface and flight level winds were located in the NNW. Radar composites show little convection, however there were some weak (Figure 5). Dropsondes in the north and western portions of the circulation showed significant dry air most likely responsible for the lack of convection within the storm.
![]() Figure 5.Doppler wind analyses for flight |
A total of 9 sondes were dropped and 2 radar analyses were completed.
Mission Evaluation:
This mission collected DWL observations successfully and captured the second snapshot of a tropical cyclone spinning down. Within the storm, the DWL initially collected wind profiles both above and below the plane (4 conical scans downward, 1 upward), however there the signal pointed upward was not strong. Therefore, the observations were switched to only collecting data below the aircraft. No specific calibration flight was needed given the long commute over Mexico when observations were also collected.
Problems :
Old radar files were present in the current mission folder causing the radar analysis to fail until the files were deleted.
Lisa Bucci
October 19, 2016
![]() Final flight track |
![]() Final flight track detail |
|
![]() Flight track |
![]() Temperature and Moisture |
![]() Wind and Atlitude |
LPS log |
Radar log |
DWL log |
Dropsonde log
Flight Director's log |
Flight Director's manifest |
serial data |
NetCDF data |
1 second data