Mission 2

ER-2 Sortie 00-148

Sunday, August 20, 2000

Michael King: Flight Scientist

Objectives: To fly the ER-2 over Rustenburg Platinum mines (25°30’S, 27°30’E), then over to 25°30’S, 26°11’E, where the ER-2 turned NNE on a heading of 12° to overfly a prescribed burn of the Madikwe Game Reserve at the time of the Terra overpass at 0840 UTC. After working the Madikwe fire for about 40 minutes, the ER-2 proceeded NNE along the Terra ground track into northeastern Botswana (22°S, 26°48’E). The ER-2 then moved eastward and flew a parallel track SSW from 21°39’S, 27°54’E to 25°30’S, 27°05’E, overflying Selibe-Phikwe copper and nickel mines in Botswana. Following this flight line, which went directly over Pilansberg National Park, the ER-2 overflew Waterkloof Air Base in Pretoria for photographs at the request of the RSA Air Force.

Cloudy skies occurred over the early part of the flight up the Blyde River Canyon and over the escarpment, and some altocumulus clouds occurred near Madikwe, but clear skies dominated the region throughout much of the rest of the flight.

The mission was coordinated with JRA and Terra over Madikwe at 0840 UTC, and with JRB over Selibe-Phikwe at 0923 UTC.

ER-2 Mission: Pilot: Ken Broda

Takeoff 0705 UTC

Landing 1050 UTC

Duration 3:45

The RC-10 camera was turned on for flights over Rustenburg, Madikwe, Selibe-Phikwe, Pilansberg, and Waterkloof..

Instrument Status

AirMISR – not on plane; being repaired

CLS – lidar worked properly, but navigation data not recorded

LAS – failed prior to take off

MAS – worked well

MOPITT-A – CO bands worked well, but CH4 bands not working (software error)

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

SSFR – worked well

Meteorology: A high pressure cell was situated to the southeast of the subcontinent, extending a ridge northwestwards and causing an influx of low level moisture into the northeastern areas of South Africa and southeastern Zimbabwe. A low was centered over the southwestern Cape. This low, coupled with an upper-level trough to the west of the country, caused extensive cloud over the western parts of the country. Although it was generally subsident to the east, a band of middle level moisture was being trapped beneath an inversion at about 16000 ft. over eastern Namibia and the central and southeastern parts of Botswana.

It was cloudy over the northern and eastern parts of the Northern Province in the morning, clearing partially during the afternoon. Partly cloudy over central and southeastern Botswana and Gauteng, The cloudy weather over the western areas spread across the southern areas and a few light showers resulted in these areas.

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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