TAMDAR AERI-bago Validation Experiment (TAVE) Daily Summary ----------------------- Date: 02 March 2005 CST (Sunday) 0000-2400 UTC Location: Tennessee Air National Guard at MEM Airport Operators: K. Bedka, S. Bedka http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tamdar/ Weather Conditions: Sunny skies in the morning have way to a mid-level (~800-650 mb) stratus deck in the afternoon. Highs in the low to mid-50's. Winds much calmer than the last 2 days with all obs under 10 kts. Instrument Status: * Surface pressure, RH, and tmeperature sensors working and archiving. Anemometer is still malfunctioning. UW-CIMSS crew has decided to examine the anemometer when the AERIbago is taken back to UW-Madison. Therefore, the wind data contained in the surface data files is invalid. * Ceilometer working and archiving. * GPS system working and archiving * AERI working and archiving. * Radiosonde system is working and archiving. As of 2015 UTC on 022804, ASOS surface wind data from KMEM is included as the lowest observation level within the radiosonde data. Surface pressure, temperature, and humidity observations will still come from the AERIbago's instrument tower. 0100 No Launch. Operators tried for 20 straight minutes to get in touch with the tower with no success. No one picked up our calls. 1430 Launch normal, data good. 1615 Launch normal, data good. 2015 Launch normal, data good. 2300 Launch normal, data good. Science/Miscellaneous: Attached are a couple relative humidity quicklooks from today's TAMDAR and operational RUC-20 profiles at Memphis. Radiosonde lauches today (not shown) revealed that the RH increased within the 800-600 mb layer from 75% at 1430 and 1615 UTC to greater than 90% after 2015 UTC as a stratus cloud deck developed. This RH increase is apparent in both the TAMDAR and RUC-20 time cross-sections. As one can see by the observation frequency (the asterisks along the time axis), TAMDAR profiles are bunched together at nearly 2 hour intervals. Profiles are averaged between observations, causing the RH x-section to appear discontinuous when new observations arrive. The attached x-sect from DTW shows the benefits of higher observation frequency in developing these time cross-sections. The high RH values with this x-section represents snow producing clouds (and actual snowfall) present throughout the day The operators have 17 sondes remaining within the AERIbago. AERIBago contact number: 608-219-0565 If you or anyone you know would like to be included on this email list please respond to these summaries with your contact information. Cheers, Kris Bedka