Mission 11
ER-2 Sortie 00-157
Chris Moeller: Flight Scientist
Objectives and Summary: Over fly the Mongu Tower (15° 26’S, 23° 15’E) on a line from about Senanga to Zambezi with the CV580 doing BRDF below followed by two overpasses of Mongu airfield (15° 15’S, 23° 10’E) on the same line shifted slightly to the west with CV580 doing profiles below and MPL lidar looking up. Make two overpasses of controlled burn (Ward) at Kaoma (about 1000 and 1020 UTC), then over fly MPL at Mongu airfield one more time on N-S transect
ER-2 overpass of Mongu tower (~0823 UTC) and Mongu airfield (~0905 and ~0930 UTC) in clear sky with much smoke/haze noted by pilot. AirMISR successfully operated on tower and 1st airfield overpass. The ER-2 then flew to burn scars and a small controlled fire launch near Kaoma for two overpasses centered on about 14° 55’S, 24° 45’E. Mission then returned to Mongu airfield line for a final overpass of MPL and on to Senanga site. Skies clear throughout the Zambian sites with much smoke/haze noted. ER-2 then proceeded on a flyby of Matimba power station near Ellisras (~1220 UTC).
After the mission, learned that Mongu MPL not operative due to power outage.
RC-10 was run on all legs covering Mongu region as well as Kaoma burn region.
Nav recorder failed to record data on this mission.
Highlights: Coordinated ER-2/CV580 BRDF and
profiling over ground based instruments in Mongu region.
ER-2
Mission: Pilot:
Jan Nystrom
Takeoff 0640 UTC
Landing 1255 UTC
Duration 6:15
The AERONET sites were over flown during this mission:
· Mongu airport (15° 15’S, 23° 10’E)
· Senanga (16° 07’S, 23° 18’E)
· Zambezi (13° 32’S, 23° 06’E)
· Kaoma (14° 48’S, 24° 48’E)
· Mongu tower (15° 26’S, 23° 15’E)
Instrument
Status:
· AirMISR – collected data over Mongu tower
· CPL – worked well, navigation data not recorded
· LAS – worked well
· MAS – worked well
· MOPITT-A – worked well
· S-HIS – worked well; nadir mode
· SSFR – worked well
Meteorology:
A cold front has crossed the Cape, causing cloudy rainy weather over the southwestern parts of South Africa. To the north of the front, the south Atlantic high is ridging across the western interior. The Indian ocean high has moved off to the east and the influx of cool moist air into the northeastern areas has collapsed. Aloft, the flow has become more zonal over southern Africa with a trough and upper jet to the east. Weather will be generally fine, except for the southwestern areas where it will be cloudy at times with occasional rain.
AirMISR – Airborne Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer
CLS – 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: