INDOEX C-130: FLIGHT 5, 25 February 1999 Objective: Combined Direct and Indirect Mission Mission Scientist: A. Clarke Summary: This 9hr l5min mission was a successful combined flight with several objectives. The primary objective was clear-air closure near 9N, 67E and later near 8N and 71.5E. Between these two locations we flew an indirect-effect/cloud-albedo study with about 30min in-cloud legs and more than one hour of albedo measurements above cloud. A KCO fly-by at 100ft was included after takeoff. An MCR turn was included near 06:10 GMT, and a stepped descent into Male was carried out for Male lidar intercomparison. All objectives were carried out successfully with most instruments operational for all missions. All investigators were happy with their observations and report only minor problems during the flight. The SABL lidar was operational for about an hour but was down for most of flight and will limit full assessment of the variability (+/- 30%) observed in the vertical and horizontal during the direct closure legs. The PCASP probe and 260X probe were also down, but other probes appeared to function adequately for the indirect study. All in all this appears to be a very successful mission. 8:40LST Delay Taxi - no winds data - resume at 8:45LST UTC 03:52 Takeoff and climb to 1,500ft - surface winds ca. 10 knots 04:00 Descend from 1,500ft to KCO 04:04 Start 100ft leg 04:06 Pass KCO 04:13 Climb to 18,000ft 04:36 Lidar working, looks good to surface 04:40 Lidar looks up - sees no layers 04:46 Level at 18,000ft 04:48 Lidar dies 04:50 Very small patch of cirrus ahead 04:58 Lidar up 05:02 Change heading to 9N, 68E 05:04 Lidar sees pollution top near 3km, small Cu at <1km 05:23 Lidar dies 05:24 Climb to 20,000ft 06:09 Head S to avoid small Cu. near clear area 06:12 Start MCR turns @ 20,000 (9.65N, 67.4E); 112 deg. into sun, 202 across 06:20 Over clear air 06:25 Start 20min run @ 20,000 E-W, 270 deg magnetic 06:34 A few very small Cu below 06:48 On track, start descent - 9.24N, 65.92E; heading 90 deg magnetic W-E 06:56 Some increases in scattering and dry layer at 13,000ft 07:02 Pollution layer @ 7,500ft (no clouds) near 66.6E, upper layer near 5,000ft 07:15 End descent to 100ft; W-E 07:18 Start 100ft leg for 20min E-W 07:22 Surface glassy E-W , scattering varies about 10x10-6m-1 +/- 20% 07:28 Nephlometer impactor test 07:38 Cannot see little clouds we saw earlier at this end 07:40 End 100ft leg (9,24N, 66. 14E) and climb to 9,000 07:41 Absorption and humidity fluctuation near 1,500ft aloft. 07:49 Drop to 6,000ft 07:52 Start 6,000ft leg 08:00 Less change in scattering @ this altitude but some changes related to humidity 08:14 End leg @ 6,000ft and climb above haze 08:43 Descend to cloud after cloud overflight 08:46 See cloud top @ 5,000ft 08:49 See cloud base @ 2,000ft 08:52 Climb to 3,000ft @ 305 mag heading for in-coud run 09.02 Drop lower to get more clouds 09:10 End in-coud run and drop below cloud 09:13 Start 5-min run below cloud 09:17 Climb to 9,000ft 09:23 Out of haze at 8,400ft 09:44 9,000ft, scattering down to 3x10-6m-1 just above haze layer 10:12 Moving out of cloud area 10:14 Climb to 12,000ft to get out of haze spearing at 9,000ft 10:24 Start 20min leg @ 12,000ft W-E 10:43 Restart 15min leg at 12,000ft 10:51 Thin aerosol layer ahead at altitude 10:58 End 12,000ft run, turn and descend 11:01 Start descent to 7.93N, 73.9E E-W 11:07 Hit top of layer at 8,400ft 11:12 Strong layer at 5,000ft 11:18 End descent - some small clouds at end of leg - turn for 100ft leg 11:21 Start 100ft run for 1Smin - calm sea 11:30 End run and climb to 5,000ft 11:40 Start 5,000ft leg W-E (7.92N, 73.84E) 11:55 End leg 7.903N, 72.925B and spiral up to 12,000ft 12:02 Climb to 15,000ft and head to Male 12:32 Start descent to 5,000ft for 10 min (Male lidar run) 12:36 Enter pollution layer near 8,000ft - small Cu below 12:49 End l0min 5,000ft run - descend to 2,000ft 12:52 At 2,000ft and hitting wisps of clouds 12:59 Descend from 2,000ft S of Male 13:03 LAND