NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

96/04/22 CART site activity

Meteorology at the Central Facility

Weather Conditions from Site Operators Log

Visiting Instruments at Central Facilities

The DC-8 and ER-2 flew a coordinated mission over the CART site to measure radiation and to profile optically thick cirrus, and over Texas to measure convective cloud inflow and outflow. For the radiation part, both the ER-2 and DC-8 flew up and down wind legs over the CART site ending with the DC-8 near the cirrus base in position to ascend in altitude for cirrus profiling. Although, the DC-8 made numerous passes through its own contrails it was unable to remain in any of them due to the low visibility provided by the cirrus.

The DC-8 and ER-2 flew a coordinated cirrus cloud profiling mission over the CART site, where only patchy, optically thin cirrus (and halos) were observed during the entire day. Both ER-2 and DC-8 flew up/down-wind legs over the CART site. Only the first leg was coordinated for a radiation measurement time-series, with the DC-8 below the cirrus deck. For the cirrus profiling the DC-8 ascended in an up/down-wind flight-leg racetrack pattern and descended in slow spirals near the CART-site. The ER-2 observed lots of cirrus and contrails over the CART site.

The DC-8 sampled the T-39 exhaust plume without contrails. The DC-8 also detected a weak tropopause fold. The T-39 provided emissions for the DC-8 to sample and also sampled the DC-8 emissions. The T-39 was able to fly at a fixed position (20-50 meters behind the DC-8) and sample the exhaust of the individual inboard engines.

Highlights

• T-39 sampling near field plume of DC-8

Flight Reports

Mission Summary

DC-8 SUCCESS flight #205 [960205] (scientist: Eric Jensen)