Mission: Cirrus cloud w/Cloud IOP coordination. MISR clear sky run under Terra overpass (1734 UTC).
Mission Objectives
Overfly CART Central Facility with single layer cirrus cloud in the scene and Cloud IOP aircraft making in situ measurements. Collect coincident Terra and ER-2 measurements over the Central Facility for MISR aerosol studies..
Flight Summary
Take-off at 1545 UTC. ER-2 landed at 2145 UTC.
ER-2 flew from MSN to CART site setting up on a line parallel to Terra orbital track and timed to meet Terra when the ER-2 was over the Central Facility (CF). Cloud IOP Citation was on station measuring in cloud beginning 1700 UTC. Beginning 1727 UTC, ER-2 did a southbound and northbound run on a 12 minute line, meeting Terra on the southbound run a few miles south of CF. A thin cirrus streak was dissipating and moving east of the CF on the southbound run and northbound run was apparently clear sky. AirMISR operated on both these legs. ER-2 then proceeded to a line oriented upwind/downwind at cirrus level (275 deg heading) over CF. This line was about 150 km long with CF located about 40 km from eastern endpoint so that ER-2 covered entire Cloud IOP ground measurement square. Flew 6 up and back runs of this line (i.e. 6 overpasses); sky conditions ranged from clear to stratoform mid level to cirrus (line 4). Location of Citation during these runs was mostly above cloud making turbulence measurements. After 6 overpasses, ER-2 broke off as Cloud IOP aircraft were ending their activities.
Highlights
Coincident ER-2 and MISR data in mostly clear (some thin cirrus?) conditions over CART Central Facility. Much MAS data of clouds advecting over CF ground based instruments. Coincident measurements by ER-2 and Citation of cirrus cloud(?).
Instrument Status