Mission Summary
20080927I1 Aircraft 43RF
Kyle Tail Doppler Radar flight 2008

Scientific Crew (43RF)
Lead Project ScientistRob Rogers
Radar ScientistSylvie Lorsolo
Dropsonde ScientistNeal Dorst

Flight Crew (43RF)
PilotsBarry Choy
Amelia Erhardt
Carl Newman
Flight DirectorPaul Flaherty
NavigatorRyan Kidder
Flt. Eng.Joe Klippel
Dewie Floyd
Data TechTerry Lynch
Elec. TechJeff Smith
Damon San Souci

Mission Plan :

Fly a butterfly pattern in TS Kyle. Initial point on southwest side, end up on west side of storm. Do a center fix on the first pass. Fly whole pattern at 10,000 ft. Drop sondes 50 nm from center on each radial leg, and 1-2 drops at center.

Mission Summary :

Take off Landing
MacDill AFB, FL11:51 UTC MacDill AFB, FL20:02 UTC

Kyle has been slowly intensifying, even in the presence of moderate southwesterly shear. Convection has been developing closer to the center (Fig. 1 and, Fig. 2), with the previous N42RF mission reporting numerous occurrences of lightning on the east side of the storm. The main convection is displaced to the north-northeast of the center, though. There are some indications of downdrafts on the southwest side in the visible imagery.

The vertical shear has relaxed some (Fig. 3), with shear values over inner core at 15-20 kt. The upper-level winds show a ridge axis over the storm, and the strong westerly jet over the Florida peninsula and well to the west of Kyle. Flight-level winds are strongest on the east side of the storm as it accelerates to the north, with peak values above 50 kt (Fig. 4). Dropsondes suggested a tilt of the vortex toward the north-northeast with height between 1000 hPa and 700 hPa (Fig. 5). This was supported by radar analyses as well (Fig. 6).

The flight track was flown as planned, with the southeast and west legs cut short because of asymmetries in the distribution of scatterers. Some strong vertical motions were encountered on the northeast side, where an MCS was located. Significant choppiness was encountered on the east side of the storm, which after inspection of Doppler analyses seemed to be caused by strong vertical shear of the tangential wind, with an anticyclone at 6-7 km and below and anvil sloping inward with height. The strongest SFMR winds were 62 kt on the northeast side. Radar analyses showed peak winds of 70 kt at 500 m above the surface on the northeast side.

Three good radar analyses were performed. The system was still asymmetric, with precipitation on the northeast side of the storm, so there was limited information on the west and south side. It was very broad, with a MSLP of 995 hPa. Analyses showed structures very typical of sheared systems, and very different from classic tropical cyclones. This will be a very good case for testing data assimilation methods in sheared systems.

Takeoff was at 1151 UTC September 27, landing was at 2002 UTC September 27. A total of 7 drops were released.

Problems :

There were no problems today.

Robert Rogers


Mission Data :

Dropsonde plots
700 mb
850 mb
925 mb
1000 mb
surface

One second listing

NetCDF listing

Flight Data Plots


Flight track

Temperature and Moisture

Wind and Atlitude

Flight track detail


Page last updated November 19, 2008
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