ER-2 Flight Summary for 07/20/2005
Sortie Number: 05-9031
Take off: 0600
Landing: 1235
Mission Description:
The ER-2 was tasked to fly a nominal six-hour mission during the early morning of July 20 over Pacific waters west and south of Costa Rica, with extension into the Panama Bight. The objectives of the mission were to 1) provide calibration-validation underflights of the Aqua and Aura satellites; and 2) sample organized nocturnal convective systems along a west-east line over the ITCZ, with possible extension to targets within the Gulf of Panama. All instruments on the ER-2 were fully operational prior to takeoff.
Mission Objectives:
The objectives of the mission were to 1) provide calibration-validation underflights of the Aqua and Aura satellites; and 2) sample organized nocturnal convective systems along a west-east line over the ITCZ, with possible extension to targets within the Gulf of Panama. The Aqua overpass was at 0732 UTC, and the Aura overpass was at 0747 UTC.
Mission Notes:
Takeoff was at 06 UTC. The ER-2 climbed out to west. En route to a navigation fix off the west coast of Costa Rica, the ER-2 was tasked to turn right and transect a rapidly growing region of deep convection, on the northern edge of a mesoscale, stratiform rain shield. The new crossing point was given as 10 N, 86 W. Flash rates were very large in this region and cloud top temperatures were below -80 °C. During the pilot's initial attempt to transect the region above 50,000 feet, severe turbulence was encountered. The pilot then executed a climbing spiral to 65,000 feet off to the side, and the deep convective region was then transected without rough chop. The pilot overflew the deep convective region on northwest heading up to the Initial Point (IP) at 13 N, 89 W. The pilot arrived at the IP on schedule, at 0703 UTC, where he loitered in mostly clear-partly cloud conditions and at altitude until 0732 UTC. At this time, the ER-2 headed south-southwest to a waypoint that took the aircraft below and along the nadir point of the Aqua and Aura swaths, in mostly clear air. At the end of the underflight track, the ER-2 was retasked to fly the MCS transected on the way to the IP. Since the first crossing, the deep convective region of the MCS expanded in size and set up along a 100 km long NNW-SSE line, embedded in an elliptical, mesoscale cloud shield with a large region of cold cloud on the order of -70 °C. Lightning activity was still intense on the northern edge of the convective line. The ER-2 performed NNW-SSE racetrack patterns capturing the mature and dissipating stages of this westward-moving MCS. The initial line ran from 11 N, 87.5 W to 8 N, 86 W and encountered abundant lightning in the NNW portion (north of ~10 N). The return leg was parallel and ~12 nmi east of the original line. It also encountered several lightning flashes on the NNW side o fthe MCS, but fewer than before. This leg was extended well outside the MCS to 11.5 N, before returning SSE on a line parallel to and 10 nmi west of the original line. Cloud tops warmed and lightning decreased substantially during the last three of the five legs along this racetrack pattern. For these last three, the ER-2 was kept between 9 11 N in order to focus on the dissipating convection and adjoining stratiform region.
Other Mission Assets:
Ticosonde launched on the regular schedule (00, 06, 12, 18).
Flight Track:
Navigation Data
Instrument Status:
| Instrument Acronym | Status during sortie | Full Report | Quicklooks |
| AMPR | Yellow |
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| CRS | Green |
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| EDOP | Green |
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| HAMSR | Green |
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| MAS | Green |
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| MTP | Green |
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| REVEAL | Green |
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