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Section <br />4 <br />4.SPECTRA 1 case studies <br />In the following section of the report, a few case studies are presented to document the aerosol and <br />microphysical properties as they are analyzed from the aircraft data. <br />4.1 Cloud microphysical study: August 14, 2004 <br />th <br />On the 14 of August, northwesterly flow was helping to initiate storms over northeastern New Mexico <br />within a region of upslope and moisture convergence. Activity extended southeastward along an <br />instability axis to just west of Amarillo Texas by 2330 UTC. Instability was varied across the region with <br />models indicating an axis of 1000 J/kg of boundary layer CAPE extending northwestward from Big Spring, <br />Texas to northeastern New Mexico. The airmass could be typified as a modified continental air mass with <br />trajectories coming increasingly off the Gulf of Mexico. Cloud base temperatures based upon model <br />soundings were expected to be around 13°C to 15°C. Figure 8 shows the 0000 UTC Amarillo sounding, <br />most representative of the sampled environment indicated CAPE values of 652 J/kg. <br />Figure 8b: Amarillo 00Z sounding 15 August 2004 <br />Aircraft penetrations were made on the flanks of a severe thunderstorm that developed in Deaf Smith <br />county west of Amarillo. The cloud bases formed along an incline as they developed over a gust front <br />close to the thunderstorm. To the west of the thunderstorm (about 10 miles from the intense aircraft radar <br />echo) the cloud bases were firm at 7100 feet (2164m). Farther west, the cloud bases were higher by <br />about 1000 feet (305m). Apparently aircraft penetrations were conducted on clouds that were triggered by <br />31 <br />