Mission 7

ER-2 Sortie 00-153

Tuesday, August 29, 2000

Michael King: Flight Scientist

Objectives and Summary:  Map the Gauteng and lower Mozambique sectors.  Overfly AERONET sites at Skukuza and Inhaca Island and document fires and burn scars.  Underfly TOMS (0929 UTC).  Monitor industrial and mining centers, including the Murchisan Lineament formation. 

Light haze reported by pilot in predominantly clear conditions, although some cloud scenes.  20-30 fires observed in Mozambique, one large one.  Some loss of MAS data (fail lights at 1203, 1226, 1233, 1311 UTC) during the mapping of the Mozambique sector. 

Highlights:  Fires in Mozambique.

ER-2 Mission:   Pilot:             Jim Barrilleaux

                             Takeoff         0800 UTC

                             Landing        1350 UTC

                             Duration       5:50

The AERONET sites were overflown during this mission:

·        Skukuza (20°01.2’S, 31°29.8’E)

·        Inhaca Island (26° 02’S, 32° 54’E)

Instrument Status

·        AirMISR – not on plane; being repaired

·        CPL – good data, but navigation data not recorded

·        LAS – No data

·        MAS – partial data loss.

·        MOPITT-A –worked well

·        S-HIS – worked well; nadir mode???

·        SSFR – worked well

Meteorology:

A cold front is trailing along the southern Cape coast. Continental high established over southeastern Botswana with dry air in circulation over the northern parts of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and southern Mozambique is keeping skies clear over these regions. Offshore flow over Natal with onshore over central Mozambique.

Instruments:

AirMISR – Airborne Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer

CPL – Cloud Physics Lidar

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: