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ER-2 Flight: 97049

Date: February 12, 1997

Mission: ADEOS/POLDER validation.

Mission Objectives

ER-2 will position itself into solar plane and overfly thin cirrus for POLDER instrument comparison on ADEOS (overpass at 1742 UTC). Approximately 10 minutes of data collection before and 10 minutes after the overpass. Thin cirrus also useful for cloud detection over snow/ice. Overfly Lake Superior for lake effect snow band characterization. Overfly Hall/Foster snow site in west central WI on a N-S transect at 90.5w meridian for snow detection. Overfly SSEC instrumentation and Lake Mendota on SW to NE leg that should put HIS instrument right over center of lake for snow emissivity characterization.

Flight Summary

Take-off was at 1601 UTC. ER-2 landed at 2035 UTC.

ER-2 flew from Madison to central N. Dakota (47.5n, 100w) to get over thin cirrus with POLDER overhead (1742UTC overpass). Collected 18 minutes of data flying into the sun (1734-1752UTC). Pilot reported banded cirrus sky conditions during the pass with primarily snow-covered ground backdrop. Then flew to western end of Lake Superior for Lake effect snow bands. ER-2 also flew N-S track over snow measurement site (Hall/Foster) in west central WI with clear skies. Flight finished with ER-2 doing 2 overpasses of Lake Mendota at 1946UTC and 1954UTC.

Highlights

Underflight of POLDER with ER-2 oriented into the sun and flying over banded cirrus. Clear overpass of Lake Mendota with AERI instrumentation measuring snow emissivity at surface.

Instrument Status

Modis Airborne Simulator (MAS): Operated, data collection.
Cloud Lidar System (CLS): Operated, data collected.
High-Resolution Interferometer Sounder (HIS): Failed.
Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (MIR): Operated in scan mode, data collected.
Tilt Scan CCD Camera (TSCC): Operated. Data collected in 1st half of flight. Some dropout in 2nd half of flight.
RC-10 Camera: Not Operated.

Additional Pilot Notes:. Thin banded cirrus w/patchy (10%) low clouds during POLDER underflight, but primarily snow backdrop under ER-2.