Project #2002-112 IDEAS Phase 2
Instrument Development and Education in Airborne Science
J. Stith, et al.
NSF/NCAR C-130Q Hercules (N130AR)
A test flight was conducted today to test John Hallett's instrument and to do speed runs for its calibration. After climbing to 17.5 kfeet northbound and completing the speed runs, we noticed a large fire northwest of Fort Collins. So, we proceeded over the fire at 17.5 kfeet to view it on AMIR and to set a waypoint. We then did cross wind plume traverses at three distances downwind at the approximate plume vertical midpoint. We also called CHILL Radar and they brought their system up and observed the fire plume on radar. We then made an along plume traverse from about 35 miles downwind to over the fire (i.e. a northwest run from downwind to upwind in the plume), and then repeated that run 1000 feet lower in the opposite direction until we flew out of the downwind plume near Greeley. Although we were short some instruments, this was a useful fire sample for the CCN measurements. We also flew over Marshall for AMIR calibration.
Jeff Stith