WP-3D Daily Summaries

7/22/04 WP-3D Flight Summary

This flight was planned as the third leg of a three-day quasi Lagrangian experiment. The New York City plume had been previously intercepted and studied on July 20th and the 2tst. On July 22 the plume was predicted to be over the Bay of Fundy reaching beyond Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island. Along the flight track the NYC was intercepted as predicted by the FLEXPART model. In addition in this flight the first "wingtip to wingtip" intercomparison with the NASA DC-8 was carried out over the Gulf of Maine.

Early in the flight the WP-3D rendezvoused with the DC-8 over the Gulf of Maine, for a three-flight leg intercomparison. The first leg was flown at a constant altitude of 15000 ft, the next leg was a side-by-side descent to 1000 ft and the last leg was another constant altitude leg at 1000 ft. The mixing ratios of various trace gases changed considerably so that a good dynamic range was observed. The first-look data for this flight by the two aircraft were turned over to Gao Cheng, who is acting as the intercomparison facilitator. The results are not yet available for general circulation.

Actual Flight Track

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Flight Plan Map
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Flight Plan Lat/Lon Points
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