Mission Debrief
Flight Number: 90
Debrief Author: Wohlman
Date: 08/13/02
Pilot: Jason McDermitt
Launch Time: 11:19:00
Land Time: 13:57:00
EDOT Status: Operational
Miami Nexrad Status: Operational
Key West Nexrad Status: Operational
NPOL Status: Operational Were not able to coordinate with NPOL.
Mission Description:
Investigate isolated thunderstorms in the ACES target domain (Everglades and the surrounding Ocean).
Mission Objective:
Overfly as many thunderstorms as possible, and try to record the entire electric field during the life of the storms. No preferred area- land or ocean will work.
Mission Summary:
Took off at 1119L with no problems. Some storms were existant to the north, approximately 50NM from FL coast. Climbed to 43K feet and overflew one group of cells that were electrically active. Recorded 20 kV/m over the top. Got a pass and a half over the storm when we got a low pressure indication on the aft tank. Rule indicated that we RTB. Did so and landed at 1357L. Mx will be working the problem tonight.
Instruments/Aircraft/Ground Assets:
Instruments worked extremely well. Gerdien was replaced before flight, and began functioning above 500feet. Mills all worked, all other science assets worked just fine. GFM was inop.
Weather:
Large area of persistant storms to the north provided our first target of opportunity. Just as the aircraft was making its second pass, the mission got scrubbed. Elsewhere, tstms popped over southwestern FL and near to the Keys. Great day for storms. We did get good data on the storm that we flew, just unfortunate that we had to return early.
Total Flight Time: 2 Hours 38 Minutes
