Mission Summary
20031207I1 Aircraft 43RF
Extratropical Transition Experiment (ET) into Odette 2003

Scientific Crew (43RF)

Lead Scientist	Sim Aberson
Sonde Scientist	Jason Dunion
Workstation Scientist	Paul Leighton
Observer	Chris Fogarty (Dalhousie University)

Aircraft Crew

Pilots	CDR Phil Kennedy LT Mike Silah
Navigator	LT Devin Brakob
Flight Director	Marty Mayeaux
Flight Engineer	Steve Wade
Engineer	Jeff Smith
Technicians	Terry Lynch Ray Tong Damon SansSouci

Mission Plan :

The ET flight will leave MacDill AFB, FL at 10:00 AM EST and recover at 7:30 PM EST at MacDill AFB.

Mission Summary :

NOAA 43 left Tampa at 1454 UTC, 7 December 2003, and reached our first drop point at 1732. NOAA 43 flew a zig-zag "Charlie Brown" pattern around the forecast location of the remnant low of Odette. A Figure 4 pattern would not have been appropriate since there was no core remaining to the system.

No circulation was apparent at flight level, and dropwindsondes hinted at a closed circulation east of the surface cold front. At the end of the flight, it became apparent that a convective line associated with the tail end of the surface front was curving inward toward the low-level circulation center, and another convection line was developing on the eastern side. After departure, satellite images showed a convective blowup over the center, and redevelopment of the surface center detached from the surface front.

NOAA 43 returned to MacDill at 2306 UTC.

Evaluation :

The mission went well, even if Odette was not the strong tropical storm we had hoped for.

Problems :

1. Dropwindsonde (HAPS) operators were not trained to archive data with the new HAPS. Paul Leighton assisted in the archive.
2. HAPS did not work normally. Clicking on the sonde file did not start editsonde. Editsonde was started manually on a command line in a terminal for each sonde.
3. New HAPS does not have scrollbars in windows like old HAPS. This makes processing some sondes very difficult.

Mission Data