CLEX-9 November 1st, 2001 Operations

Synopsis

• The CLEX-9 forecast team has decided to stand by all operations for Thursday, November 1st.
  
  
• Weather Forecast (made at 1500 MST 10/31/01):

  
             We are going to be on stand by for possible WYKA CLEX operations on Thursday, 
             November 1, 2001.  The earliest GO/NO GO decision will be at 0600 MST (1300Z).  
             Expect earliest possible takeoff for the King Air at 0800 MST (1500Z).  The 
             target area will be operations over LBF.
  
             WEATHER DISCUSSION:
  
             A ridge is building into the CLEX area, and conditions are becoming less favorable 
             for mid-level clouds.  The 24 hour Eta model valid at 12 Z, Nov 1 indicates a weak 
             vortmax over the NE panhandle.  The NOGAPS model shows weak positive vorticity as 
             well.  Moisture is lacking in both of the model, and latest water vapor imagery shows 
             a dry punch working into California which is forecast to be over the CLEX area Thursday 
             morning.  Due to the model's usual questionable handling of moisture and the pessimistic 
             outlook for the remaining days of CLEX, we will go against the odds and be watching for 
             mid-level clouds Thursday morning.
  
             OUTLOOK:
  
             Later Thursday and into Friday and Saturday the jet moves north of the CLEX region and 
             a high pressure system becomes the dominant weather feature.  Flow aloft becomes zonal 
             and weakens.  This is not favorable for CLEX clouds.
  
             John Forsythe/Jim Jones
  
    
  Morning Update (made at 0600 MST 11/01/01): 
  
             CLEX Operations are a GO for this morning.  We are anticipating a WYKA takeoff by 8 AM MST.  
             The likely target area is in the Torrington WY region.
  
             An area of mid-level clouds mostly covered by cirrus clouds covers the eastern half of 
             Wyoming.  Some of these clouds are orographically enhanced, but there is a vort max moving 
             through which is contributing as well.  The entire cloud mass is sliding off to the east 
             and cloud tops appear to be warming.  The clouds are not expected over the CLEX ground 
             site at LBF, so the mission will focus on Western NE and eastern WY.
  
  

Post Mission Update (made at 1300 MST 11/01/01):

           The WYKA with Adam Kankiewicz aboard completed a 2.6 hour mission on a dissipating mid-level 
           cloud over SE WY and Nebraska near Ogallalla.  The cloud was mixed phase with a base about 
           17 K feet.  There was cirrus above as has been a frequent occurrence during CLEX-9.

           John Forsythe

           The WYKA left Laramie this morning a 0750 MST for a mission over the Sydney, NE region.  

           On the way east we sampled cloud with the cloud radar and recorded a vertical profile of 
           cloud from Laramie to Kimball, NE.  We observed plenty of cirrus and some wave cloud 
           activity while flying east.  At 0830 we found a cloud over Lake McConaughy that looked 
           good enough to sample.  We began a Lagrangian spiral ascent into the cloud to get an 
           in-situ vertical profile.  Cloud base was near 17 Kft (-14C).  the cloud was a bit patchy 
           and seemed to be in the dissipating phase of its lifecycle.  We saw a lot of small ice 
           (8um ave size) and found a few pockets of imbedded liquid water in the cloud.  We finally 
           found cloud top at 0903 (26 Kft and -33C).  The top was very wispy and had only small ice 
           present.  We then flew west and descended back down to 16 Kft with the cloud radar in side-
           look mode.  Down here we only saw decaying cirrus-type cloud around.  We decided to head 
           on back to Laramie.  In route back, we profiled the clouds above with the cloud radar 
           (mostly cirrus) back to the NE/WY border.  We landed in Laramie at 1019 MST.

           Total time aloft: 2.6 hours (with about an hour of that in cloud).

           Adam

Sunrise Information for North Platte, NE

Sunrise   
                     Central Standard Time          

        Begin civil twilight       6:46 a.m.                 
        Sunrise                    7:15 a.m.                 
        Sun transit               12:27 p.m.                 
        Sunset                     5:39 p.m.                 
        End civil twilight         6:07 p.m.                 

Weather Details

1200Z 500 mb Map



1345Z GOES IR Image and CLEX-9 01 Nov 2001 Target Region


 




1200Z North Platte, NE Sounding


 







 

Aircraft Operations

• UW King Air Operations: Total time aloft was 2.6 hours (with one hour of that devoted to sampling cloud).

North Platte, NE Ground Operations

• Ground Instrument Status: Everything working well...
  

Data Collection Highlights:

• Summary: Updated as soon as possible