ER-2 Flight Summary for 07/05/2005

ER-2 Flight Summary for 07/05/2005

Sortie Number:  05-9025
Take off:  1800
Landing: 0115

Mission Description:

 Tropical Depression #4 in the Caribbean Sea was within the TCSP flight range on the morning of 5 July 2005. A previous planned thunderstorm mission to check out NASA/NOAA coordination and communication was changed to a tropical cyclone genesis mission.
The NOAA 43 was planned to launch 1 PM EDT/ 11 AM local and the NASA ER-2 was planned to launch at 2 PM EDT / noon local. The total mission length was expected to be 8 hours for the ER-2 and about 9 hours for the P-3.
The NOAA 42 was tasked by the National Hurricane Center to perform a reconnaissance mission into Tropical Storm Cindy. It was to land in Key West, Florida tonight.
Aerosonde aircraft are located at Puerto Quepos. They should be available for Eastern Pacific missions in a day or two after flight testing.

Mission Objectives:

 The NASA ER-2 and the NOAA 43 aircraft were to fly a single figure 4 beginning with a west to east leg across the storm, a shorter east to north leg, and then a longer north to south leg. Along the pattern both aircraft were supposed to briefly fly in a stack formation in order to sample precipitation fall velocities with downward-looking radar from the ER-2 and upward-looking radar from the P-3. If time permitted, the aircraft were to perform the TCSP microphysics module.

Mission Notes:

 The NOAA 43 took off at 1700 GMT. The NASA ER-2 took off at 1800 GMT. The ER-2 pilot reported cloud top heights of 41,500 ft. on climb-out. Aircraft coordination worked very well between the NASA pilot and the NOAA navigator. The aircraft flew the Figure 4 pattern as planned. The aircraft were stacked within 10 seconds of each other during one portion of the flight and within 1 second during another portion of the flight. The ER-2 landed at 01:15 GMT. The P-3 landed shortly after that.
Additional notes from Ed Zipser: The joint mission between the NOAA P3 and the NASA ER2 was successfully coordinated and was the first aircraft to probe this storm. We were somewhat surprised to find that this storm formed so quickly in a region of the Caribbean that hardly ever sees development. We found a minimal tropical cyclone, with maximum flight level winds about 40-45 knots in the west, north, and east quadrants, with a large circulation and convective regions scattered around all quadrants. It will serve as an excellent anchor point for analysis of the intensification of this storm on subsequent research missions.

Other Mission Assets:

 Ticosondes were launched at 0000, 0600, 1200, and 1800 GMT.

Flight Track:

05-9025_track.pdf

Navigation Data

Data File
Log File
Track File

Instrument Status: