96/04/21 CART site activity
Meteorology at the Central Facility
Weather Conditions from Site Operators Log
Extensive altocumulus mid-morning gave way to variable cirrus fibratus
cloud conditions ranging from dense fallstreaks occasionally
down to 5.5 km to thin (bluish) detached cirrostratus layer at 11.0 km.
Low level convection with local rain developed rapidly mid-pm.
Visiting Instruments at Central Facilities
CART Instrument Operations at Central Facilities
Key: O = operational, X = down or degraded
- RASS, 50 MHz, (hourly): X
- RASS, 915 MHz, (hourly): O
- BSRN: O
- SIROS: O
- SMOS, (24 hrs): O
- SWATS (24 hrs): O
- EBBR, (24 hrs): O
- WSI, (every 10 min.) O
- MWR, (24 hrs): O
- IRT: X
- MPL, (24 hrs): O
- BLC, (24 hrs): O
- AERI, (24 hrs): O
- SORTI, (daytime, sunny): O
- Raman Lidar (daytime): O
- 60M Temperature and Humidity: O
- 25M Temperature and Humidity: O
- 25M IRT: X
- 25M MultiFilter Radiometer: O
- 25M Upwelling IR: O
- 25M Upwelling Solar: O
- 10M IRT: O
- 10M MultiFilter Radiometer: O
- Aerosol System: O
- Radiosondes, (Every 3 hrs, from 1:30 UTC): O
There are four staffed Boundary Facilities, each having Balloon Borne Sounding
Systems (BBSS) and MicroWave Radiometers (MWR). During the IOP period,
sondes are launched every three hours round the clock, starting at 5:30
GMT (12:30 CST). The sites are listed below. Times listed following a site indicate questionable data or
failed sonde launches. Weather conditions are recorded in the
Boundary Facilities Site Operator's Log.
- Hillsboro, KS (BF-1): Okay
- Vici, OK (BF-4): Okay
- Morris, OK (BF-5): Okay
- Purcell, OK (BF-6): Okay
There are numerous unstaffed Extended Facilities. The specific
instrumentation at the extended facilities varies from site to site, but
generally includes a flux station (either an Energy Balance Bowen
Ration (EBBR) system or an Eddy Correlation (ECOR) system), a Solar and
InfraRed Observing System (SIROS), and a Standard Meteorology Observing
Station (SMOS). For the locations of the Extended Facilities, and their suite
of instrumentation, see the table
and map of the Extended
CART site. The comments below indicate
specific data streams with identified problems.
- Problem at Extended Facility:
- E1: ECOR
- E2: SIROS
- E3: SIROS
- E10: SIROS
- E12: SIROS
- E16: ECOR
-
Key Comments/Observations related to flights
The upper cirrus layer at 11.0 km appeared to contain contrails: we reported
this layer height to Salina to set up a contrail mission following cirrus
profiling. (Only short contrail segments were noted from the DC-8 in
the lower cirrus.) The initial DC-8 pass was directly over the CART site
and flown accurately into the layer wind, such that the persisting contrail
remained overhead as it advected and spread for several minutes. Persisting
contrail loops were then made to the NW of the site, but these were poorly
targeted and did not drift over the site. Local convection began at this point.
Later on upon exiting the area, DC-8 contrails were noted again over the site
and to the NW, but developing showers and poor targeting prevented
ground-based sampling.> At end of DC-8 mission, a long contrail was laid down into
the wind but this was blocked from ground-based remote cloud sensing (gbrcs) by developing low clouds.
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