Campaign Diary

August 16th 2006

A local survey flight over Ouagadougou was carried out by DLR Falcon following a two aircraft intercomparison flight organized together with British Bae-146 taking off from Niamey.
Geophysica took off for the transfer flight to Marrakesh at 13:15

DLR Falcon took off twice: in the morning for an MCS Outflow flight and in the afternoon for a local convection measurements over the forest region

The third scientific meeting was organized and included presentations of quick look data summarizing the campaign measurements
Falcon flight was cancelled due to weather conditions

A Farewell Party was organized in the Splendid Hotel
MDB and the instrument teams began preparation for the transfer flight of Geophysica as today's flight was the last lacal flight of M55. Plans for Falcon include 3 more local flights
Both aircrafts were deployed during the LRT template based flight which additionally included a CALIPSO leg performed by M55

Two flight plans were developed for the upcomming day including LRT/cirrus flight and MCS flight, both including multi aircraft co-operation with Niamey based research aircrafts
DLR Falcon and French Falcon (departing from Niamey) flight planned for early afternoon was cancelled due to lack of convective activity withing the flight range

Both Geophysica and Falcon took off from BA511 by 15:00 UT for the MCS Outflow flights
A storm delayed the roll out of the aircrafts by over one hour
The decision on carrying out the MCS Outflow flights was taken by 7:00 UT after MCS monitoring and trajectory/tracer calculations performed during the night

Both Geophysica and Falcon flights were cancelled in the morning due to lack of convective activity within the flight range

CALIPSO flight is scheduled for August 8th. Geophysica will fly over Niamey following the satellite footprint.
Geophysica and Falcon took off around noon for MCS flights over Burkina and Mali.

Most of the reseach groups presented their quicklook data during the first scientific meeting in the evening.
Falcon took off at 9:48 UT for a 3h MCS outflow flight.

The MDB team reported health problems of the M55 pilot during the evening meeting. Geophysica flights planned for August 6th were canceled.
Two different schedules were developed for the M55 flights for August 6th including a combined MCS/CALIPSO flight and a pure CALIPSO validation flight.
Decision on Falcon MCS outflow flight was continuously suspended till 15:00, when the flight was finally postponed by one day as the forecasted MCS over Benin did not appear.

Evening meeting in the hotel Splendid conference room included pilots reports and meteo briefing.
Flight planning group was discussing a possible CALIPSO flight for Saturday August 6th and alternative schedule including an MCS outflow flight.
Both aircrafts took off from Ouagadougou airport before 09:00 UTC for approximately 3h40m flights. The flight path of both aircrafts was similiar and included southward leg to Accra on the Guinea Bay coast and a come-back over Ouagadougou up to the Mali border.
A large MCS has passed over Ouagadougou during the night bringing rain.

Most of the sensors are mounted and waiting for the early-morning roll-out of the Geophysica and Falcon
Flight planning group confirmed the LRT template for August 4th, a detailed flight schedule was worked out and presented on the evening meeting in the flight planning office
Both aircrafts were serviced during the day in the hangar

Another dry-run of the MCS alert was organized together with Niamey team in the evening
The last container arrived which enabled the DLR team to move the Falcon into the hangar having the long awaited GPU
Dozen of power cuts in the airbase that affected both works in the hangar and in the flight planning office
A most probable schedule for the next days, as agreed during the afternoon meeting, include a long range transport flights both for Geophysica and Falcon on Friday, August 4th and a CALIPSO flight on August 6th. The take off time for Friday is scheduled for around 8:00 UTC
Several instruments were dismounted from the M55

A dry-run of a MCs alert - planning of the coordinated MCS flights was organized late in the evening by both Niamey and Ouagadougou AOCs
Approx. 30 members of the campaign arrive - the team is almost complete.
The Geophysica left Verona at 23:15 LT (21:15 UTC) with 15 minutes delay arriving 4 hours later in Marrakesh

Geophysica performed the test flight in Verona
Approx. 25 members of the instrument and aircraft groups arrive
First tries of Ouaga-Niamey communications including the morning forecasters call and the teleconferences between the AOCs flight planning groups
The flight-planning group had a first look at the offices and the newly refurbished rooms in the hangar

The logistic team (Stefano Balestri and Heinz Finkenzeller) got reinforcement by members of the flight planning and forecast group.

The DLR Falcon and the Geophysica will be delayed by one day arriving August 1 in Ouagadougou

Geophysica is delayed by one day and will arrive in Verona on July 25.
DLR Falcon will take off 3 hours earlier (5:00 h local time) then anticipated to avoid afternoon heat in Marrakesh.

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M55-AMMA-SCOUT-O3 Campaign Team 2006 contact: Sylwester Arabas <slayoo@igf.fuw.edu.pl>, Martin Streibel <Martin.Streibel@ozone-sec.ch.cam.ac.uk>