WISC-T2000 Mission Planning

Flight Planning:

Chris Moeller (MAS Investigator)

Steve Ackerman (WISC-T2000 cloud scientist)

Jay Mace (Cloud IOP 2000)

Flight plans will be finalized 3 to 4 hours prior to scheduled ER-2 launch. During this time, interested participants along with Steve/Chris will formulate the flight plan. A typical flight planning session will include review of latest satellite imagery and weather data in the context of Primary science objectives. Secondary objectives will be incorporated into the flight plan on an "opportunity" basis. Steve and/or Chris will brief the ER-2 pilot. Once a flight plan has been provided to the ER-2 pilot, no further changes will be made

Science and Instrument Support/Readiness:

• MAS: Menzel, Moeller, Smyrl, Gumley, Strabala
• S-HIS: Revercomb, Dedecker, Best, LaPorte, Garcia
• CLS: McGill, Holz, Spinhirne
• AirMISR:Bruegge, Cunningham, Conel
• RC10: NASA/ARC (Smyrl)
• AERI: Knuteson, Feltz, Deslover
• AERIbago: Knuteson, Feltz
• Classonde: Feltz, Short

Daily Schedule:

Launch times will largely be tied to underflying Terra during the morning 10:30am nominal overpass. To underfly Terra the ER-2 will launch between about 8am and 9:30am depending on the transit to the satellite orbital track. Not all flights will be tied to Terra overpasses so some launches may take place in the afternoon or early evening.

WISC-T2000 meetings will be called on an as needed basis

1. Flight Days

• Flight Planning including nowcast weather beginning 4 hrs pre-launch.
• Coordination between WISC-T2000 and ARM Cloud IOP 3-4 hrs pre-launch
• ER-2 Pilot is briefed on mission of the day at 3 hrs pre-launch.
• Notify ground instrumentation teams of successful ER-2 launch after take-off.
• Short pilot debrief on mission about 20 to 30 minutes after ER-2 lands.

2. Non-Flight Days

• Informal discussion on next day flight schedule and weather with a short meeting to finalize decision on next day's schedule by at least 15 hrs pre-launch. Instrument readiness information is desirable by this time.

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