Mission 1

ER-2 Sortie 00-147

Thursday, August 17, 2000

Michael King: Flight Scientist

Objectives:  To fly the ER-2 over surface sites at Skukuza (24°55’S, 31°36’E), then over the Mozambique Channel off Maputo, turning SSW to underfly the Terra satellite on a heading of 194.4° and an overpass time of 0810 UTC.  This flight track ran for 744 km from 26°10’S, 34°35’E to 32°40’S, 32°45’E.  After this long flight line, the ER-2 turned approximately north and flew directly over the lowveld, crossing Swaziland and Skukuza, before turning for home.  The return leg overflew the escarpment southwest of Blyde River Canyon.  Cloudy skies occurred over part of the Mozambique Channel flight line, but skies were clear for the Terra overpass and for approximately 125 km.  The mission was coordinated with JRB and Terra at 0810 UTC, where JRB measured CO at 17 levels in the lower atmosphere for intercomparison with MOPITT (and MOPITT-A).

ER-2 Mission:   Pilot:             Jim Barrilleaux

                             Takeoff         0645 UTC

                             Landing        1100 UTC

                             Duration       4:15

The ER-2 overflew the Skukuza airport (SMART station) shortly after attaining altitude (0723 UTC) and again on the return leg from Durban (1001 UTC).  Clear sky overpasses of the escarpment and the Pietersburg International Airport were obtained on the return.

The RC-10 camera was turned on for flights over the lowveld of Kruger National Park and Swaziland, but not during the offshore flight lines.

The ER-2 pilot reported 20% low cloud cover during the Terra overpass at 0810 UTC, but 50% for most of the Terra ground track.  On the return over the lowveld the visibility was quite good, with only about 5-8 modest veld fires being observed.

Instrument Status

·        AirMISR – not on plane; being repaired

·        CLS – lidar worked properly, but navigation data not recorded

·        LAS – failed early on climb out, but worked later in hangar on the ground

·        MAS – port 3 (3.4-5.1 µm) off plane, as dewar is undergoing nitrogen purge

·        MOPITT-A – worked well

·        S-HIS – not installed on aircraft due to instrument problem in interferometer

·        SSFR – worked well

Meteorology: A cold front was moving away to the southeast with a ridge from the south Atlantic high south of the country, causing an onshore flow along the southern and southeastern coastal regions.  A high pressure cell aloft has moved off the east coast.  The weather was generally fine over South Africa with the exception of cloudy areas along the southern and southeastern coastal areas where a few light showers occurred.

Instruments:

AirMISR – Airborne Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer

CLS – Cloud Lidar System

LAS - Leonardo Airborne Simulator

MAS – MODIS Airborne Simulator

MOPITT-A – MOPITT Airborne Simulator

S-HIS – Scanning High-resolution Interferometer Sounder

SSFR – Solar Spectral Flux Radiometer

ER-2 Ground Track:

 

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SeaWiFS Image:

 

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