Mission Scientist Report for 21 April 2011

Our first weather briefing was help at the PNC Airport facility.  Instrument status:  ER-2 is operational.  Instruments are operational.  HIWRAP has been granted permission to operate over Colorado so flights over the CHILL Radar Facility could also provide us with another opportunity for data collection.  UND CItation II is operational, instruments are basically ready to go.  DOE soundings are operational.  DOE radar summary:   C-band can only scan in PPI Mode.  Working on a elevation drive problem for RHI's.  Two of the 3 DOE X-bands are up and running.  The working radars are at the NW and SE points.  The SW site is down and is being worked on (transmitter fault).  Ka/W band radar has an issue with the pedestal and can only do vertically-pointing at the present time.  The Ka vertically-pointing radar is operational.  NASA N-pol is operational.  Scans are being refined today and data is being examined right now on nearby TRW's.  

Plans for Friday:  Convection may develop around the Norman OK area around 21 Z.  We have alerted the UND Citation for a 2030 Z takeoff.  The ER-2 will lift off from Dryden at 18 Z Friday and plan to be over Norman OK at 21 Z.  ER-2 will do scientific data collection near the OU-Prime radar if all goes well, then head to Offutt AFB.  On the outside chance there is weather over SGP, the ER-2 can overfly SGP on the way to Omaha. 

Saturday:  Forecast for Saturday is less optimistic for convection so at this time it does not look like aircraft operations will be needed. 

Sunday:  A major weather event is expected to affect the area Sunday afternoon into the overnight hours.  A stalled front will be over the area along with copious (returning) moisture from the Gulf.  Strong upper level support is also forecast, ejecting from a major trough to the southwest.  So we could really be in business Sunday afternoon/night.  All facilities should make a max effort to be fully operational for this anticipated event. 

Steve Rutledge

Ed Zipser