Mission Science Report Archive

Flew south to warning area 291 to drop two dropsondes with spiral descent to for LASE intercomparison with sondes (both drop as same location). Return to Dryden. (see objectives below for full details.)

Primarily a checkout and calibration flight for most instruments. LIP calibration manevers shortly after takeoff. Then drop two dropsondes and spiral down to 5000 feet for LASE intercomparsion. Spiral at 1000 ft/min descent for MTP intercomparison. Fly down to 2000 feet to reach marine stratus layer for microphysics test. Return to Dryden area for over flight of radiosonde site for LASE. MMS manevers and spiral descent at 1000 ft/min for MTP intercomparison. Another objective was a transmission of real-time dropsonde data to the hurricane center.

Times are UTC. 1817 CSTAR looked good, PR-2 14 GHz reasonable but 35 GHz had low signal 1818 Microphysics good, except CVI had a loose connector on T/O. 1828 LASE operating well. 184040 Dropsonde #1 released (intermittent winds, winds lost half way down) 185302 Dropsonde #1 in the water 185423 Dropsonde #2 released (good winds) 190048 Spiral descent began around dropsonde site 190656 Dropsonde in the water 1932 Marine Stratus reached at 2000 ft. 1934 FSSP & 2DC reported good data 1949 Dropsonde attempts to transmit data to NHC failed. 1956 Dropsonde reported successful connect to NHC and dropsonde data sent. 2006 C-STAR reported failure & shutdown operations for the day 2030 End of LASE run over Dryden (radiosonde release site) 2042 Spiral descent began for landing (at 1000 ft/min

Clear skies over Dryden. Marine Stratus encountered as we fly southwest over Los Angelos with Stratus below our altitude southward to dropsonde location and then only clear skies (above & below aircraft) before mainland Calif. was near San Clemente and Santa Catalina Is.