Joint Airborne IASI Validation Experiment (JAIVEx) at UW-Madison SSEC/CIMSS

From Bob Wells:

Ultimately Flight B290 on Monday was very successful with measurements made by both the FAAM BAE146 and the NASA WB57 in clear sky conditions on the METOP pass over the Gulf of Mexico. The effort to make an early take-off (aircraft power from 3:30am) was thwarted by Air Traffic who had failed to register a flight plan from the
unnumbered METMAN. This caused a delay of nearly half-an-hour but by making a high speed transit and a small reduction in sub-satellite path length very little science data was lost. For the remainder of the detachment the call sign of G-LUXE will be declared as METMAN 1 (cf AIR FORCE 1) which we hope will give us more credibility.

All FAAM aircraft instruments (except the SATCOM ) worked well and the WB57 team reported a successful mission although they were limited to a truncated pilot-training sortie.

The 146 made a refuelling stop in New Orleans and this time a reliable GPU was (eventually) obtained. However, the fine sight which had so excited Capt Foster on the previous visit was nowhere to be seen.

While most of the team were away flying, the crew from an Air Force Hercules which had been parked near the 146 identified themselves as the Hurricane Hunters and warmly welcomed inspection of their aircraft and AVAPS equipment.

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