Mission 10

ER-2 Sortie 00-156

Monday, September 04, 2000

Chris Moeller: Flight Scientist

Objectives and Summary: Over fly Sua Pan PARABOLA instrument site (20° 34.53’S, 26° 04.91’E) on a NW-SE oriented 12 minute line for AirMISR. Run the line 3 times, on the third run offsetting by 3km to the SW.  Then over fly Maun (19° 55’S, 23° 36’E) on 12 minute AirMISR leg, then get on TOMS orbital track (0957 UTC overpass) for 30 minute leg.  Then run 12 minute AirMISR lines over Tshane (24° 09.84’S, 21° 53.58’E) and Okwa River (22° 24.55’S, 21° 42.78’E), finishing by over flying the Murchisan Lineament (23° 45’S, 31° 18’E to 25° 23’S, 31° 40’E) for surface emissivity studies with SHIS and MAS.

The ER-2 launch was delayed by about 10 minutes for local winds and commercial aircraft activity.  It flew northwest from Pietersburg to line up on Sua Pan AirMISR line.  Three lines were run (~0854, 0919, 0940 UTC).  Skies were clear for all runs.  Pilot noted very poor visibility on these runs.  Anomalous performance of AirMISR indicated in the cockpit.  Maun line was partly cloudy (alto cu) as was the TOMS line, which the ER-2 arrived at about 12 minutes after overpass due to delay in launch.  Because of cloud cover, Tshane and Okwa River runs were skipped and ER-2 finished with Murchisan Lineament run which was partly cloudy in the western half and clear in the eastern half.

RC-10 was run on all AirMISR legs.

Highlights: TOMS under flight (partly cloudy), AirMISR over Sua Pan

ER-2 Mission:   Pilot:             Ken Broda

                             Takeoff         0800 UTC

                             Landing        1240 UTC

                             Duration       4:40

Instrument Status

·        AirMISR – no data

·        CPL – worked well, navigation data not recorded

·        LAS – not operated (ballast)

·        MAS – worked well

·        MOPITT-A –worked well

·        S-HIS – operated in nadir mode; no data

·        SSFR – worked well

Meteorology:

Cold front moving away to the east with Atlantic high ridging eastwards and starting to bulge out on the east coast. Cooler moist lower level air spreading northwards into the Mpumalanga and Northern province lowveld.  A band of middle level cloud beneath an upper jet stream lies from central Namibia, through Botswana to the Gauteng and Mpumalanga highveld.  Skies will be cloudy today along the eastern seaboard and adjacent interior and over the Mpumalanga lowveld.  Low cloud will spread northwards into the lowveld of the Northern Province during the day.  Partly cloudy over the central areas of Namibia, Botswana, Gauteng and the Mpumalanga highveld. Very isolated thundershowers are possible in these areas. Moist air from Zaire is spreading southwards and thundershowers are also expected over northwestern Zambia.

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: