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

From Allen Larar:

Here is the input for our desired flight tomorrow (Thursday, 3 May).

Objective: Daytime flight over north-western GOM, underflying the
Metop (1107 local) satellite overpass and coordinating same-altitude flight legs with the BAe 146.

Schedule (all times local):
0415 Hands-on (note that back-seat switch control
0515 Hands-off needed for instrument pre-flight ops)
0545 Pre-flight brief (Southwest Services)
0545 Tow-out
0845 Takeoff

Way Points:

E: EFD
A: 27 deg 45.0 min N, 94 deg 10.00 min W
B: 25 deg 30.0 min N, 92 deg 45.00 min W

Flight Plan:

E -> A -> B -> A. Continue running line back and forth at select altitudes and times to coordinate with the BAe 146 and Metop satellite overpass.

Nominal flight timeline is:
0845 takeoff
0915 FL280 (verify altitude with BAe begin coordinated A -> B -> A legs with BAe 146 at FL280
1030 end FL280 coordinated runs; begin climb to max Z (> FL550)
1045 maintain level flight at FL550
1100 begin back and forth runs of line A-B (either direction)
(Metop satellite overpass at begin descent to FL320 (verify altitude with BAe maintain level flight at FL320
1210 begin coordinated A -> B -> A legs with BAe 146 at FL320
1300 end FL320 coordination; RTB

Constraints:

Legs coordinated with BAe 146 would nominally run same A-B line, at same altitude, with needed time separation; specifics to be discussed at pre-flight brief.

S-HIS descent mode switch should be activated upon descent from FL320, i.e. *after* final coordinated leg with BAe 146.

Mission abort conditions: we require either NAST-I or S-HIS
to be operating nominally for mission continuation, so if both
fail (and are unable to be re-booted via checklist procedures)
then mission should be aborted. Instrument teams will monitor radio
communication until after all sensors are operational, then
can be reached via cell phone during flight.

Two issues of concern for implementation of this flight that are still TBD: 1) pilot availability, and 2) local weather.

See you at 0545 tomorrow AM at Southwest Services for the pre-flight brief.
From Bob Wells:

Wednesday was another long successful day for the JAIVEX campaign with observations above low cloud by both the WB57 and the 146 of the METOP pass near the Oklahoma ARM site. The 146 refuelled at Oklahoma City and added 6hrs 43 mins and 10 dropsondes to the campaign totals which now stand at 60.9 Flying Hours from Houston and 104 sondes.

Another early start is planned for Thursday (Aircraft Power 3:45am, Take-Off 7:45am)
for a sortie over the Gulf. It proved impossible to set up a wing-tip to wing-tip intercomparison of the two aircraft above FL180 along the METOP track so the WB47 will follow the 146 with 5 minutes separation.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 11:28 am and is filed under Status Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.