Daily log: 11/8: Monday 8 thermocouples were installed on the land tower. Due to the limited length of the cables, the entire vertical range of the tower cannot be covered. A OSU sonic anenometer was put at the end of the tower, pointing N. Nice weather. 11/9: Tuesday Weather is nice. Meeting at 1pm meeting with Bill Plant and Ken Melville. A box flight pattern is designed. First SHOWEX meeting at 8pm. Mark Donelan's group (him and Ken), Ken Melville's group, the LongEZ group and the TwinOtter showed up. Most of people have left their instruments in the water and left Duck. The coordinate operation will be among the LongEZ, TwinOtter, and F.G.Creed. The first sonic anemometer was extended further north of the pier. The boom length is 3.12m. 11/10: Wednesday Weather is nice. Added 4 TC on the land tower. One TC was broken. Download some TC data. The second sonic was put on the end-of-pier tower. We Moved in the house at Kill Devil Hills. 11/11, Thursday: It is clear day, wind direction 236, wind speed 5m/s. The cold front is west of us, and will move in this afternoon or tonight. There will be a SAR pass at 6pm tonight. The LongEZ group is still working on the instruments at First Flight. Most of the installation has been completed yesterday. The LongEZ group needs to install all the laser altimeters and align them, and install Ken's camera, etc. Tim is expecting to have the test flight late in the morning. Tim made the test flight for about one hour. Everything works out fine. The cold front moves in. It was windy and rained. Around 5pm, the the SAR flight was canceled because of rain. Tomorrow, the forecast for tomorrow is sunny, maybe light rain in the morning, high 58F, NNE wind. 11/12, Friday: It was windy in the morning. Tim took off around 9:30am, did AC (A=36.15, -75.73, C=36.5,-75.17) run at 1000' and a 15km run perpendicular to AC starting at C. The flight pattern was repeated and back to A. Then the LongEZ was out from AC, and CA at 20m. After that, the new parallel pattern is tested. There are totally 5 flight tracks parallel to the coastline. Their off-shore distances are 250m, 1.25km, 2.25km, 4.25km, 8.25km. The pattern was repeated three times, so that there were 6 passes along each flight track. The sounding was done at the end of the flight. There were some data system problems. The computer crashed during the flight. The data sampling frequency was not right, there was a time shift problem, 1 second. 11/13. Saturday. It was really calm, 2-3 m/s wind. At 9:30am, the wind was from W. The coordinate flight with the TwinOtter was planned for 1pm take-off. Tim was going to do some calibration manuvers and meet the TwinOtter at point A of the comparison box. Then the modified parallel pattern will be tested. One track is added right over the land at 50m. In order to keep the flight time within 4 hrs, the track at 8km off-shore is eliminated. The wind direction changed around 4pm because of the sea breeze. The LongEZ was back around 4:30pm. 11/14, Sunday. The weather is nice. Mahrt's stacked flight is tested. The wind speed is about 3m/s and SW. The air temperature was about 17C around 10am. It is a good IBL flight. The turbulence was strong even at 2500ft. Tim took off around 11:12am. 11/15. Monday. The cold front passed here around 11pm last night. The wind was really strong at night and it is still strong in the morning. It is cloudy, and the roll vortices are visible. Flight plan: Melville L at 1500ft from my A to C, and 15 km perpendicular to AC at C. The flight pattern is reversed back to A. A 20m round trip of AC. Then the 5 track parallel run within the SHOWEX domain. The second mission is planned for the afternoon. The big TwinOtter box will be flown with the TwinOtter (61kmx30km). Then A to F and F to G at 1500ft for Melville. 11/16, Tuesday The weather is nice, windy, and a little bit cold, which is high 52F. A new track for Melville was selected, along Tom Herbers buoy track from x1 to somewhere between x4 and x5. Then a perpendicular run to SW for 15km. Then a perpendicular run passing the end of pier and over the inland sound was flown with 14 passes. The track is about 20 km off shore. Tim first flew north of the pier, then he felt comfortable to fly south of the pier. It was clear sky, but the data indicate strong roll vortices. Lots of data Doug cannot use because of the large roll angles. The turbulence is strong. 11/17, Wednesday It is cold this morning. air temp=4c, and water temperature reported by the NOAA station is 14C, where wind is 320 deg at 6 m/s. Tim will fly the x1-x5 track, about 60 km off-shore, then turn south for 15km for Melville. Then he will fly 20m high from x1-x5 and turn south at x5 for 50km. After this, an intercomparison flight with the OSU sonics will be done. The comparison track is parallel to the coast about 600m off-shore, which is about the pier length. The track will be centered at the end of the pier, and 10km long. 6 passes are designed. Tim came back around 12pm and took off around 1pm to fly the small box with the TwinOtter. It was planned to fly with Fred Creed this morning. At 6am, Creed was back to the port because of the strong waves. The comparison flight with Creed is cancelled. Creed won't go out tomorrow (11/18). Therefore, the coast line comparison with Creed is cancelled too. 11/18, Thursday. It is sunny, calm. At the NOAA station, the morning temperature is 5C, the water temperature is 13C, the wind is 2-3 m/s, and 270 deg. The 90km run is designed. The track follows the Tom Herbers' buoys. The track ends at x6. A spiral sounding down at x0 (close to the coast), and a spiral sounding at 90km will be flown. Tim is going to report us the turbulence strength, then a saw-tooth flight will be decided depending on the sounding information. The TwinOtter take-off time will be 11:30am, so they can finish the flight early and get ready for the SAR flight tomorrow morning. The two aircraft will flight out from Manteo tomorrow morning. The take-off time will be 5:45am. The wind may be very weak tomorrow. 11/19, Friday. It is a nice sunny morning. At the NOAA station, the wind is 1.4m/s, direction 180 deg, air temperature= 11C, and SST=13C. Peter called in around 8pm. The next morning flight was cancelled because of the light wind condition. The TwinOtter flew the L shape this morning and the take off time should be 5:30am. Tim is going to fly south to study the SST thermal boundary. He will fly across the boundary +/- 10 km. The track way points are 36.6,-75.45, and 36.3, -75. Creed will leave the Norfolk port on Sat. night and back to the port on Monday night. Tim encountered the sharp thermal front. The temperature at the warm pool is 24C. Tim took off again to have the island run, then quited in the middle because of lack of gas. 11/20. Saturday It was a scattered-cloud day. The wind was from SE. Tim did another 90km along Herbers buoys. Then he went out even further to check out the warm pool. The water surface was really smooth, and the turbulence was very weak. 11/21. Sunday. It is sunny. Light wind 2.9m/s from east. The intercomparison run was done between Creed and LongEZ. Creed cruised along the wind around Bravo. Three tracks parallel the coastline covered the ship track, 5km, 10km, and 15km off-shore coast. The 10 km off-shore was over Bravo. There were 4 passes over the 5km and 15km tracks, and 6 passes over the Bravo track. In addition, 4 passes at 100m over the Bravo track were added. The TwinOtter small box was done at the end of the mission. 11/22. Monday. NE wind. Gulf stream run. 11/23. Tuesday. It is heavy foggy. A down-day for the LongEZ. The TwinOtter went off at 11am and almost had trouble to get back. It was foggy all day long. 11/24 Wednesday It is foggy again. The TwinOtter and the LongEZ are going to do the gulf box run today. Tim took off around 10:30am. The fog was thick close to the coast, so Tim didn't do the low level run close to the coast. The designed leg was based on Tim's previous run. However, the SST front has moved to further away from the coast line, so the designed leg is not long enough to capture the SST front. Tim called the TwinOtter group for extension of the track, and the TwinOtter did't respond. One 20km square was done and Tim went out to find where the SST front was, and came back. The flight was relatively short, about 2 hours. 11/25. Thursday. It is sunny day. Ta=16c at frf, the wind direction changed from 360 to 100 deg within the last 2 hours. The wind direction reported from buoys varies. We have to wait until noon to check the wind direction again. The TwinOtter took off at 3pm. Tim took off around 3:30pm. He did the parallel run and met the TwinOtter at the pier at 5:30pm. The SAR L started at the pier, heading 130 deg. for 15 min (about 45km if the ground speed is about 50m/s), then turned to NE for another 15min. 11/26 Friday. Tim took off 5:45am. He did the SAR L run starting at x0, and turned right for another 15 min. Then he did x0-x4 run several times. 11/27 Saturday. It rained and was windy in the morning. The deep-sea fishing was cancelled. By 9am, the rain stopped, and it was still windy. The old AC run was planned for Melville's camera run and the 20m run, which was an along and cross wind run. 11/28 Sunday. It is sunny. At the NOAA station, wind=9.5m/s, dir.=5, Ta=14C, Ts=15C. A pattern of cross and along wind tracks is designed. The new 30km L starts from x0, heading 70 deg for 30 km (17 nm), then turn right, heading 160 for another 17nm. Melville camera will run over this track, and two passes along the new L will be conducted. Then two passes of the parallel runs will follow. A sounding will be somewhere over the open ocean. 11/29 Monday. Another Sunny day. At the NOAA station, wind=6m/s, 16 deg., Ta=10C, and Ts=14C. The wind direction again varies among the buoys, from 340 to 20. Tim is going to flight an intercomparison mission with the OSU sonics at the end of the pier. The track will be 10 km long and centered at the end of the pier. Then he is going to flight the parallel pattern with an extra track at 16km off-shore. He is going to flight the parallel track twice. The TwinOtter is going to take off at 11am. No box flight today. Tomorrow, the wind is going to be strong, a box run will be conducted. Also Peter wants to flight the camera tomorrow for the strong wind condition. 11/30 Tuesday. It was windy in the morning. At the NOAA station, wind=10m/s, dir 314 deg. Ta=4C and Ts=15C. Tim off-shore around 8:30am. Right after Tim took off, it rained at the house. Tim is going to do x0 cross wind (40km) and along wind (30km) at 1500ft and 20m along this L pattern. Then he is going to do the parallel run with only 5 tracks. We are going to do a high level run at the base of the cloud somewhere off-shore. The second mission is planned to do the box run with the TwinOtter and do another camera run for Melville. The TwinOtter is going to run out of time soon. They are not going to fly Wednesday and Thursday. They are going to do the SAR flight with Tim on Friday morning, and fly on Sat. Then they are going to pack. Tim did 4.5 hrs of flight, and because of the bad weather, he is not going to fly this afternoon. 12/1 Wednesday. It is really windy day. The air temperature at the end of the pier was 0C and the water temperature was 13C. The wind was 10m/s from 320 at the NOAA station. There was no beach to walk on, the water level was high. Tim took off at First Flight and did Melville's camera run in the cross wind direction for 60km and turned right 90 deg. for 15 km at 1500 ft. Tim reported roll vortices and roll clouds, which were very clearly on satellite IR and VIS images. The original flight plan was changed from the parallel runs to the repeated runs along the cross-wind track to study roll vortices. The cross wind track started at x0. Tim did a sounding flight high above the clouds, and used Melville's camera for the roll cloud picture. 12/2 Thursday. It is a sunny day. The air temperature is about 1C and the water temperature is about 13C. The wind is 6m/s, and direction at the end of the pier is about 290. The buoys reported wind direction around 320 deg. The Pea Island stack pattern was tested. The island was cold and gradually warmed up. However, the water temperature was still relatively high, the turbulence was relatively strong over the open water. The air temperature over the Pea Island was about 45F, and the water in the mash land area was about 53F. The Pea Island area is not perfect for land-sea contrast, because of the water body. Tim is going to land at Manteo and gets ready for Friday morning SAT flight. 12/3 Friday. It is sunny, a little bit cloudy. The wind speed direction varies from Manteo:4m/h/260, frf 4m/s/224, DSLN7:12kt/290, 44014:14kt/270, 41001:14kt/310. At the NOAA station, Ta=6C, Ts=11C. The dominant wave is the swell. The SAR flight was conducted with the TwinOtter. Then a heat-island flight was conducted north of the 158 bridge. The turbulence is a little bit confusing from this run. Mike and Bruce will visit us today. The forecast indicates that the wind will be SW tomorrow. Maybe a parallel run will be conducted tomorrow. 12/4 Saturday. It is sunny. Wind 5-6m/s, 224 deg. Good off-shore flow we have been waiting for. Tim took off about 10:45am, and did a new parallel run. The new parallel run is next the fat Outer Banks. The track starts at the coast line, 1km, 2km, 4km, 8km, and 16km between adjacent tracks. Each track is about 10km. Soundings at the southern points of tracks 1 and 6. A perpendicular track is added from S6 (the southern point of track 6) to S1 (the southern point of track 1), which is about 30 km distance. In addition, the stack pattern is conducted at tracks 1,2, and 3. The stack pattern consists of 50m, 150m, and 300m round-trip run. We should see the variation of the IBL very clear from this pattern. After the stack pattern, another pass of the 6 tracks was done. The sonic anemometer at the end-of-the-pier tower was taken down. All the ground instruments will be down tomorrow and are packed. 12/5. Sunday. It was sunny and warm. The wind was 5-6m/s, SW, then turned to SE. A heat-island study was conducted south of Duck. A camera run was done at FRF right before the flight mission. Since we have not had many off-shore flow cases, we skipped the SAR mission. All the instruments were taken down. The sonic cable and all the thermocouple cables are washed. There was salt on the sonic transducers, most of the salt was on the top transducers.