27Aug2010 Tri-Agency Mission Scientist Report - John Molinari

 Tri-agency mission summary for Friday August 27

NOAA IFEX: The three NOAA aircraft are in transit to Barbados. The first flight into Earl is planned for the G-IV at 1730 UTC Saturday August 28. The P-3s will fly Saturday at 2000 UTC and Sunday at 0800 and 2000 UTC in Earl. The G-IV will fly into Earl Sunday, either as an NHC-tasked surveillance mission or a research mission. On Monday one P-3 will plan to fly in Earl at 0800 UTC, while the other plans a 2000 UTC flight into PGI36 in conjunction with

NASA GRIP: DC-8 will deploy to St. Croix 1400 UTC Saturday August 28. Two 10-h flights are planned into Earl from St. Croix starting 1400 UTC on Sunday and Monday, August 29-30. If Earl forces an evaculation of St. Croix, the Monday flight will return to Fort Lauderdale (FLL). Otherwise an additional flight is planned into Earl on Tuesday August 31, ending with a return to FLL. The Global Hawk will fly into weakening east Pacific Hurricane Frank at 1300 UTC Saturday August 28. A square spiral is planned, with possible alteration near the storm core if convective cells have cloud-top temperatures below -60C. The WB-57 plans a deployment to Tampa on Monday August 30 for possible flights into Earl. The go/no go decision will be made Monday morning.

NSF PREDICT: No flights are planned for the G-V on Saturday or Sunday. The next planned flight is potentially on Monday August 30 into PGI-36. If Earl forces an evacuation of St. Croix, the flight will land in Barbados. In that case, the aircraft would return to St. Croix on Tuesday or as soon as possible thereafter for further flights into PGI-36.