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

Scientific Crew (43RF)
Lead ScientistSim Aberson
Sonde ScientistJason Dunion
Workstation ScientistPaul Leighton
ObserverChris Fogarty
(Dalhousie University)
Aircraft Crew
Pilots CDR Phil Kennedy
LT Mike Silah
Navigator LT Devin Brakob
Flight DirectorMarty 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.
Sim Aberson
Lead Scientist


Mission Data

One minute listing

Flight Data


Flight track

Temperature and Moisture

Wind and Atlitude

Flight track detail

PROPOSED DROP LOCATIONS
Drop # LAT
(° min)
LON
(° min)
TIME
(h:mm)
123 3069 303:16
222 4568 303:34
323 3067 303:53
422 4566 304:11
523 3065 304:29
622 4564 304:47
722 0065 305:06
821 1566 305:24
922 0067 305:42
1021 1568 306:01
1122 0069 306:19

Dropsonde plots at various levels
500 mb
700 mb
850 mb
925 mb
1000 mb
surface


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