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AERI-bago Daily Summary
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Date: 23 May 2002 CST (Thursday)
Location: Homestead Site, IHOP
Operator: W. Feltz, R. Tanamachi, T. Achtor
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/ihop

Weather Conditions:
Cold frontal passage occurred at ~ 12 UTC this morning.  AERI retrievals depict passage very well:

ftp://zonda.ssec.wisc.edu/outgoing/ihop/aeri/homestead/20020523/20020523t_ag.gif

Notice strong moisture gradient at ~12 UTC indicating rapid decrease in water vapor content in atmosphere.  Winds were strong northeasterly, skies generally clear temps in 60's.  During afternoon a surge of moisture returned about boundary layer causing rapid destabilization just southeast of homestead site.  Tom and I went chasing to Follet, TX in afternoon.  Robin did the same.  We got some beautiful pictures of hail swath and golf ball size hail. 
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/ihop/aeribago/weather_pictures/P5240030.JPG
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/ihop/aeribago/weather_pictures/P5240031.JPG
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/ihop/aeribago/weather_pictures/P5240032.JPG
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/ihop/aeribago/weather_pictures/P5240033.JPG
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/ihop/aeribago/weather_pictures/P5240034.JPG
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/ihop/aeribago/weather_pictures/P5240035.JPG

Robin got a camera shot of a mesocyclone and a small tornado spin up. This all occurred about an hour southeast of the homestead site.  Ill put some pictures online soon.   Large thunderstorms approached the homestead site from the southwest, hail and rain around the site. 
Added other images at:

http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/ihop/aeribago/weather_pictures/

Instrument Status:
AERI generally performing well.  Some anomalous chilled mirror activity occurred over night (20020523), check out the summary files.  Surface station running well.

http://scooby.ssec.wisc.edu/aeribago/


Science:

Convective initiation experiment conducted throughout area (and we had CI).  Good cold frontal passage this morning with post frontal convection in afternoon.

Miscellaneous:
Went chasing most of afternoon, Bago very automated, need to mark today down as good science case study.
;-)