Laserfiche WebLink
The equipment used in SPECTRA II included: <br /> A high-performance twin-engine turboprop aircraft (Cheyenne II), owned by SOAR and leased to the <br />TDLR for up to 50 hours of flight time. The capabilities of this aircraft are addressed in Appendix A; <br /> An agricultural-type single-engine airplane (as shown in Appendix A), also owned by SOAR and leased <br />by TDLR, with a capability of dispensing seeding material (milled salts) at cloud base; <br /> An instrument package, carried onboard the cloud physics aircraft (Cheyenne II), consisting of sensors <br />having the capability to measure in situ microphysical properties of clouds and their thermodynamic <br />environment, for documenting the composition of clouds, and for diagnosing the physical processes <br />within them (See Appendix A). <br /> The development and use of a unique navigation and tracking system for use during the salt-seeding <br />experiments. <br /> An operational radar (5-centimeter wavelength known as a WSR 100/2/77) with a volume scan equipped <br />with Thunderstorm Identification, Tracking, Analysis, and Nowcasting (TITAN) hardware and software. <br />(TITAN allows for the examination of the 3-dimensional structure of echoing clouds in real time, as <br />well as the tracking of individual, and groups of, echoes, whose development and motion can be <br />projected in time.) <br /> NEXRAD weather radar data (from Lubbock and Midland NWS sites, primarily), accessible via a <br />wireless high-speed internet connection; <br /> An Emergency Managers Weather Information Network (EMWIN), which is a satellite networking <br />system that retrieves information issued from the National Weather Service (NWS) within a few seconds <br />of the time of issuance; <br /> Radio communication equipment to direct pilots of both seeder and research aircraft in, and among, <br />convective towers. Geostationary Positioning Satellite (GPS) latitude and longitude data from each of <br />the two aircraft will be collected and viewed with the TITAN software. <br />The development and use of a unique navigation and tracking system (bullet 4 above) designed by Dr. <br />Rosenfeld and his son Amir proved to be a huge unanticipated plus for the program. Their unique software <br />package: 1) accepts the GPS coordinates of the project aircraft in flight and presentstheir tracks in real time on <br />the screen of a lap-top computer in the cockpit of the lead cloud physics aircraft, 2) marks the positions of the <br />seeder and cloud physics aircraft and/or an event, such as the detected "hit" of SF6 gas and then repetitively <br />navigates back to this point as it drifts with the ambient wind, 3) displaysalong the track of the cloud physics <br />aircraft when the aircraft was in cloud, 4) displays in real-time for the flight meteorologist selected plots of <br />measured aircraft parameters such as cloud droplet sizes and cloud liquid water contents as a function of time, <br />and 5) presents the aircraft navigation informationin a form useful to the pilot. Several examples of this new <br />system at work are presented in the body of this Final Report. <br />The planned research utilized the base of operations of the SOAR Program at the airport in Plains, <br />Texas, although a limited number of seeding and sampling missions were conducted elsewhere, especially in <br />5 <br />