TRMM-LBA Brazil
NCAR S-band Polarimetric Radar (S-POL)
Scientists' Log Book Transcription
10 January 1999 – 28 February 1999
All times are in UTC unless noted otherwise.
S-POL LOGBOOK #1: 1/10/99 - 2/10/99 *
January 10, 1999 *
January 11, 1999 *
January 12, 1999 *
January 13, 1999 *
January 14, 1999 *
January 15, 1999 *
January 16, 1999 *
January 17, 1999 *
January 18, 1999 *
January 19, 1999 *
January 20, 1999 *
January 21, 1999 *
January 22, 1999 *
January 23, 1999 *
January 24, 1999 *
January 25, 1999 *
January 26, 1999 *
January 27, 1999 *
January 28, 1999 *
January 29, 1999 *
January 30, 1999 *
January 31, 1999 *
February, 1 1999 *
February 2, 1999 *
February 3, 1999 *
February 4, 1999 *
February 5, 1999 *
February 6, 1999 *
February 7, 1999 *
February 8, 1999 *
February 9, 1999 *
February 10, 1999 *
S-POL LOGBOOK #2: 2/10/99 - 2/28/99 *
February 10, 1999 (continued): *
February 11, 1999 *
February 12, 1999 *
February 13, 1999 *
February 14, 1999 *
February 15, 1999 *
February 16, 1999 *
February 17, 1999 *
February 18, 1999 *
February 19, 1999 *
February 20, 1999 *
February 21, 1999 *
February 22, 1999 *
February 23, 1999 *
February 24, 1999 *
February 25, 1999 *
February 26, 1999 *
February 27, 1999 *
February 28, 1999 *
S-POL LOGBOOK #1: 1/10/99 - 2/10/99
LOCAL TIME = UTC TIME – 4 HOURS
S-pol location: 11.22126 S, 61.99820 W; 201 m altitude
TOGA location: 10.7739 S, 62.3373 W
Dual-Doppler baseline: D x = 37.008 km, D y = 49.736 km; R = 62.0 km
UND call-sign: 77ND
Learning ZEBRA and S-pol scan controller.
Building scans on S-pol.
1551-1555 Vertically pointing scan. Zh=15-20 dBZ; Vr = -2 m s-1.
Building and testing scans.
Approximate range and azimuth to four gauge networks (based on preliminary locations):
|
|
Gauge Network #1 Ji Parana Airport |
Gauge Network #2 Ematar |
Gauge Network #3 Fazenda Triangula |
Gauge Network #4 Fazenda Sao Jose |
|
S-POL |
43.6 km/20 ° |
54.2 km/339 ° |
79.3 km/332 ° |
115.7 km/327 ° |
|
TOGA |
52.4 km/100 ° |
17.8 km/87 ° |
20.0 km/359 ° |
53.9 km/332 ° |
Preliminary
timing on scan sequences:|
Scan File |
Scan Name |
Timing (seconds) |
|
trmm1.scn |
Meso dd e (135 ° ) |
596 |
|
trmm1.scn |
Meso dd w (135 ° ) |
594 |
|
trmm1.scn |
Meso hires (90 ° ) |
613 |
|
trmm2.scn |
Gauge 2,3,4, toga (27 ° ) |
597 |
|
trmm3.scn |
Loop far polsec (120 ° ) |
580 |
|
trmm3.scn |
Loop near polsec (120 ° ) |
603 |
|
trmm4.scn |
Loop survey (360 ° ) |
604 |
|
trmm5.scn |
Gauge 1 (27 ° ) |
592 |
1745-1756 Vertically pointing scan. Zdr of by 0.2 dB.
0026 Stopped, reset PMAC. Restarted loop survey (TRMM4.SCN) RHI through cell @ 139
0038 RHI through cell @ 180
° , 42 km (Note times for RHI’s are times scans were set, not times scans actually occurred).0049 RHI now @ 146
° through two cells 93 km and 120 km.Note: Convection this shift has not been very exciting; Little at or above 40 dBZ now.
0130 Convection very bleak now.
0220 Changed RHI for cell @ 190
° , 70 km (stretching here; there is just about nothing to scan).0231 Think that cell is AP or something; Vr and MP variables are off, plus it’s only on 0.5
° scan. Switching RHI back to 149° for debris there.0301 Recommend eliminating RHIs during dead periods; switching to pure surveillance scans (0303).
Note: Need to run "loop survey" sequence instead of survey alone to maintain 10 min cycle.
16:00 Radar repaired! Need to check it out for a few minutes and then we'll be operational.
16:17 Operational. Running "SURVEY" 360
Added 2-tilt 360
° to trmm4.scn. Approximate azimuth from S-pol to TOGA: 323° S-pol relative.1640-1700 Trying to contact TOGA unsuccessfully with cell phone. Couldn't get through.
16:56 Started loop survey. RHI centered at 180
° . Nice bright band to south in all polarimetric variables. Beautiful RHI's through bright band to south. LDR is enhanced real nice; just offset below Zh. Bright band centered at 5 km. Nice fall streaks beneath band.17:10 Still unable to contact TOGA. Zdr,
F dp, and r hv seemed to be more enhanced in the weaker part of the bright band (closer to radar R = 30 km). Part of bright band with fall streaks has less interesting (less enhancement) in LDR, Zdr, F dp, and r hv.17:30 Weak shallow conv. in center of east lobe. Can't get in touch with TOGA to practice DD times.
17:51 Running far polsec (up to 17
° ) loop (120° sector) centered on 32° relative to S-pol....shallow. RHI centered on 32° . Shallow convection to NE covering with far polsec loop.SCAN FILE CHEAT SHEET
trmm1.scn: meso dd e loop
meso dd w loop
hires dd (90
° ) looptrmm2.scn: gauge 2,3,4,toga loop
trmm3.scn: far polsec (120
° ) loopnear polsec (120
° ) looptrmm4.scn: survey loop
trmm5.scn: gauge 1 (airport) loop
Note: 2-tilt 360
° exists in all five files.SCAN DESCRIPTIONS
Use 2-tilt 360 for clear-air or "barely any precip" situations. It has a 2-min update so it will recycle about every 10 min.
Use loop survey (trmm4.scn) for general purpose surveillance of widespread precip. Has RHI's if needed.
Use loop meso dd e [w] (trmm1.scn) for dual-Doppler coverage (widespread) in eastern [western] lobes.
Use loop dd hires (trmm1.scn) for more isolated convection in dual-Doppler mode.
Use gauge loop 2,3,4 for gauge/disdrometer studies in networks 2,3,4 or TOGA
Use loop gauge 1 for gauge/disdrometer/profiler studies over Ji-Parana airport.
Use loop far polsec for general polarimetric sectors outside 35 - 55 km in range
Use loop near polsec for general polarimetric sectors inside 35 - 55 km.
Note: for loop survey, far polsec, near polsec, hires dd, gauge 1, gauge 234 you will need to choose azimuths for RHI's. For loop near polsec, far polsec, and sometimes hires dd, you will need to choose the center point of the sector. Try to keep sector size the same to maintain 10-min timing.
If you wish to create your own scans, please save it in a different file. Remember to maintain approximately 10-min cycle on the 2-tilt 360
° scan (i.e., all scanning loops should have a 1.1° 360 degree scan every 10 minutes).18:36 Unable to contact TOGA for last 2 hours.
18:39 Shifted 120 far polsec RHI to center of 55
° (NE).Note: not advised to switch between scan files without stopping antenna first. After stopping antenna, reset PMAC. If everything OK, then open new file and restart scan/loop.
18:50 Finally talked to Nadia at TOGA. They could not call us either earlier this afternoon.
19:19 Switched to 2-tilt 360
° which updates every 2 minutes giving 10-min cycle. All convection shallow and at R ³ 60 km.19:20 Shut down flat plate.
20:06 Running loop far polsec on cell centered @ 75
° , 72 km single cell w/ scattered debris cells. Fairly shallow, but exhibiting heavy rain on particle ID and it's the only thing around. 30 dBZ to about 6 km, top @ 15 km. Peak Zh > 50 dBZ.20:26 New loop. Shifted RHI center to 77
° to account for motion of storm. Mostly mod. rain in main cell according to particle ID.20:36 New loop. Small cell popping up in sweet spot of E. lobe. Covered by sector. Possible D-Dop?
20:50 Main cores mostly up to 5-6 km.
21:02 Cells in D-Dop lobe centered around 32
° , 81 km S-pol78
° , 81 km TOGAGoing to try to raise TOGA; cannot call TOGA; will try after sunset, see if that helps.
21:11 Lot of new small cells in E. lobe. Too bad our cell phones (don't work).
21:14 S. Convection collapsing. Switching RHI to 54
° at R = 65 km to cover new cell. This loop shift polsec to 60° centered to cover more of the newer convection next loop.21:22 New loop started with aforementioned changes; may want to shift even more next loop as cells extend beyond W. boundary of scan. Will switch center to 30
° next loop.21:27 Numerous small cells popping to N w/in 40 km; nothing too special yet.
21:43 Shift PPI W 10
° (center 20° ) next loop to cover more of cells just to our North; Shift RHI to 55° next loop too.Action Item: Comm. w/ TOGA. Sat. phone available but is very expensive. Steve and Larry need to arrange something w/ TOGA as they are well aware.
21:54 Still not impressed with close northern cells to switch to near polsec.
22:01 Switched RHI to 57
° .22:11 Rotating RHI to 7
° to cover small but intensifying cell @ 51 km; Near cells still very tiny and judge it not worthwhile to start FCM. In fact, nothing out there right now is all that exciting.22:16 RHI shows cell to have 45-50 dBZ up to 5 km; tops about 11 km.
22:18 Everything being scanned right now is pretty small, and has been for some time; RHI shifted to 9
° for storm motion.22:31 Rotating RHI to 63
° this loop to cover developing cell @ 30 km; see if it's worthwhile shifting polsec & running FCM.22:35 Cell has 40 dBZ to 4-5 km, tops to about 8 km; Think I'll hold off on going crazy with scan shifting right now. All in all, convection right now is barely worth a polsec; very popcornish, nothing big, nothing sustained; might be worth a meso dd e due to widespread nature, if we could actually communicate with TOGA.
22:50 Switching RHI to 15
° to cover northern convection @ 45 km or so again.22:54 Northern cells have anvils to 12-13 km with main cores below 6 km.
23:00 Shifting RHI to 29
° to cover new cell @ 48 km; shifting polsec to center on 30° next loop to cover close convection better.23:03 New cell looks much like the others in vert. structure, maybe a bit higher in Zh. Still not very exciting.
23:14 Shifting polsec center to 40
° to accommodate near convection.23:18 Decaying stratiform grazing north end of airport gauge network. Respectable
F dp shifts.23:20 Stopped; will run gauge scans on network #1.
23:24 Started net #1 gauge scans (trmm5.scn) centered on 23
° .23:28 Particle ID has light to mod. rain at gauges; more at NE gauges than @ SW gauges.
23:34 N gauge still out of heaviest rain; Will switch back to polsec after this next loop.
23:43 Stopped antenna.
23:45 Restarted far polsec loop centered on stratiform/decaying convection @ 25
° , 50+ km.23:50 RHI shows bright band in this convection; Will shift PPI 15
° to 40° center to cover more of near (< 40 km) convection to east.23:56 Will switch to near polsec centered @ 90
° , 35 km next loop to cover developing cell started FCM; Switched RHI to 90° this loop; Although looks like far polsec is topping it OK.00:01 Peak Zh in E. storm >50 dBZ, w/ most of core below 6 km; some spots up to 7 km.
00:05 Stopped; Started loop near polsec on 90
00:13 Main core extends up to 9 km in places, now about 25-30 km out. Hydro ID shows graupel above melt level.
00:25 Switching RHI to 95
° to accommodate motion, flank development. Main core crossing over 20 km range ring toward S-pol.00:28 Movie shows this cell to be about only thing in town.
00:32 RHI shows main cores < 5km AGL; probably why no lightning seen on FCM
00:42 Convection clearly decaying not much else out there to take its place.
00:53 Everything dying out.
00:54 Stopped; now running 2-tilt 360
° surveillance as of this time.04:23 Still in 2-tilt 360
° mode. Nothing of interest. One small cell at about 90 km 141 Az with 40 dBZ. However, there is still a clockwise rotation evident around the radar.05:00 Some convection evident at 98 km, 318
° . It's stationary as cell develops about 15-20 km south of rain gauge #4 still in 2-tilt 360° mode.05:30 General widespread increased returns in eastern hemisphere but echoes are less than 30 dBZ.
06:04 Running 7-tilt survey scan.
06:24 Running 2-tilt 360
° .06:46 Running high res. loop. Looking at cell @ 90 km 318
° . Has high 40's dBZ, wide spread and interesting BWER. RHI should be through that BWER. Center of PPI sector at 335° so that rain gauges are also covered.07:06 Back to 2-tilt 360
° 's. BWER continues but cell is shallow and PPI sector scan was wasting time scanning clear air.07:13 Running jaRHI through BWER. Cloud tops about 10 km.
07:31 Running 2-tilt 360
° . General widespread echoes are increasing with most regions less than 35 dBZ. Only a few pixels greater than 40 dBZ.07:45 Running 7 elev. angle survey reflectivities build to about 40 dBZ and then stall.
08:38 Running RHI through largest cell at 58 km, 313
° AZ. Can see Zdr, LDR BB.08:43 Running 7-tilt survey.
10:08 Reflectivities have been decreasing running 7-tilt survey.
10:33 Running RHI through cell at 310
° Az. Some cell has been at about this Az. the entire evening.10:37 Running survey, 7-tilt.
13:44 Running loop survey (7-tilt) w/ 13 RHI's centered on 67
° . There is some stratiform precip. w. embedded cells to east up to 35-40 dBZ at low levels. Checking it out.Note: Don made some nice icons to back-up and restore our scan configuration. We'll keep the icons in lower right w/ antenna control. "Back-up Scans" and "Restore Scans." Done if something gets goofed up. Just click "restore scans" and it will bring back trmm1-5.scn.
13:50 RHI's 67
° , R = 40-60 km. Weak bright band at 4.3 km with some fall streaks in Zh. Nice LDR enhancements. Convection very shallow with 5 dBZ tops around 8-8.5 km.14:12 Low 40's dBZ in bright band. LDR enhancement. Some fallstreaks evident.
Note: Let's attempt to call TOGA within the first hour of each shift to check comms. and verify each radar's status. TOGA will call us at their changeover too. For now, they will call us at.
14:41 Rotating RHI's to a center of 80
° . Could see enhancements in all polarimetric variables in bright band (RHI's). Zh = 35 40 dBZ, Zdr = 1.5 - 3 dB, LDR = -18 to -14 dB, r hv = .85 to .95, F dp: intermittent jumps to 5-20° .15:01 Rotated RHI center to 85
° . Still running loop survey. Westerlies up to 2 km and easterlies above. Nice shear in Vr.15:09 Turning off transmitter for 5 secs to check something. Loss of data < 30 sec, just a few rays (30
° or so). Shallow precip. to east is moving almost due south. Tops still around 8-9 km. Very cool outside with cirrus overcast reducing diurnal insolation.15:20 Rotated RHI's to 90
° center.NOTE: TRMM satellite overpasses and their times are posted next to the maps. At a minimum, let's make sure we're running the survey scan or something with more tilts when satellite comes over. If you're in a special scan (DD, gauges, polsec, aircraft), keep doing what you're doing.
15:30 Lot's of nice bright band RHI's. Seeing some +Zdr's and +
D F dp well above melt level (7-9 km) that suggest oriented crystals that later aggregate and give us the bright band features. Checked grad(Zh) in +Zdr regions. Several +Zdr areas looked real. (little or no Zh gradient). +Zdr: 1-2 dB; +D F dp 10-30° over 20 km + range (0.5° km-1). Let's get the Citation in this stuff! Interesting r hv minimum in the shear zone between low level westerlies and easterlies above. High s hv due to turbulence and shear would reduce r hv (if non-Gaussian spectrum??). Verified that s hv is high with r hv min. (4 £ s hv £ 7.5 m s-1 in shear zone).16:00 Shifted center of RHI's to 100
° .16:30 Shifted center of RHI's to 110
° . More and more of the same signatures in precip.16:54 Shifted RHI's to 120
° center.17:00 Some popcorn convection w/ max Zh up to 45-40 dBZ at 2.5 to 3 km AGL. Convection located R = 40-60 km to NE (30
° -45° ) and also to south R = 80 km.17:22 Stopped antenna. Running 2-tilt 360
° while editing dual-Doppler scans in trmm6.scn (new file). Creating "DD" far: meso dd e/w far: chopped at 15.8° (T=327 sec). hires dd (238 sec).17:40 Stopped antenna. Restarted the new scan. Testing "mesofr dd e" in trmm6.scn. Testing time at 10 min. Not much for RHI's to loot at. Very, very shallow. Need to firm up times on trmm6.scn.
18:42 Stopped test of meso far dd e. 18:42:32 started 2-tilt 360
° temporarily. Will practice meso (135° ) dd east with TOGA. We will start scan at 1850. Using file trmm1.scn, loop meso dd e near. Stop 2-tilt 360° @ 1849:20. Start loop meso dd e @ 1850:00 +/- 2 s. 1900:00: finished cycle darn close to 10 min...will need to check file to verify.Note: Dual-Doppler Synchronization Policy: If timing is lost and DD still looks good and comms. are lost, always reset on a ten minute cycle (i.e., ten past hour (xx10), 20 past (xx20), xx30, xx40, xx50). If communications available, re-check synchronization via cell phone about every 30 minutes or so (3-cycles).
19:30 Stopped testing meso dd e near. Re-started loop survey. Not enough targets close in. Stopped loop survey and restarted 2-tilt 360
° .21:25 Stopped antenna.
21:26 Starting loop survey; RHI on developing weak line of convection about 125 km @ 32
° . Far away and not too strong, but organized. Makes it work at least a full survey w/ an RHI also some slightly org. convection about 90 km, 225° (centroid).21:31 4-5
° tops just about everything.21:36 Most everything's under 5 km in the NE line; will switch RHI to SW convection next loop.
21:39 RHI will be centered at 224
° , focusing on small cell @ 75 km; however another cell is @ 236° , 65 km; rest is debris/stratiform in that region.21:46 S-pol had a tape-writing problem; unclear when it started or if data were lost. Not much out there so not a complete disaster. It is all working now.
21:50 RHI will be @ 234
° to cover the other aforementioned cell; everything is very weak.21:51 There is definite organization going on out there but it's all very shallow,
£ 5 km mostly; given range, low peak reflectivities and shallowness, sectors not advised.21:55 OK, now I see some stuff w/ 45-50 dBZ in it, tops to 6 km, in RHI.
22:05 Stopped recording due to tape drive mixup; need to fix it real quick.
22:14 Restarted recording.
22:19 This loop RHI shifted to 226
° to account for motion.22:24 Attempt to raise TOGA for D-DOP practice fails; will try again later; RHI shows storm
£ 8km all told.22:28 RHI shifted to 224
° for motion given shallowness of storm, I suggest holding off on polsecs; It is about 45 dBZ max; not too bad for today, but clearly not worth making a case study out of it. Besides, high tilt 360's gives us more comprehensive coverage of other cells; new one due west @ 60 km, not as strong yet.22:38 RHI shifted to 218
° for storm motion.22:52 Shifted RHI to 214
° .23:11 Things dying out now; may shift back to solely 2-tilt 360
° after this loop; sunset really killed everything.23:20 Stopped; restarted 2-tilt 360
° .02:29 Have tried to reach TOGA a few times over last few hours. Getting lots of beeping, no Portuguese message; maybe it's busy or something; maybe will try once more before shift changes.
03:37 OK, been unable to raise TOGA. Comm. w/ them may be possible w/ current cell phone setup, but it is unreliable to say the least.
05:38 2-tilt 360
06:40 Continue 2-tilt 360
° scan. A few cells are appearing in the western hemisphere of the display. 30 dBZ is about max.07:59 Running 7-tilt survey scan.
08:06 Back to 2-tilt 360
° mode (yawn).09:16 Running 7-tilt survey.
09:24 Running RHI @ 310
° Az. Cloud top about 8 km.09:31 2-tilt 360
° . Some cells have 40 dBZ peaks in them.09:48 Running RHI, center @ 274
° Az cloud tops about 8 km. 45 dBZ core.09:54 Running dd w. Can't reach TOGA radar with cell phone. Cell movement is to east in upper hemisphere to the west in lower hemisphere.
10:07 Running far polsec scan centered at 270
° AZ. Good cell at 245° AZ @ 55 km. Has BWER. Cloud top to about 10 km. Wind shear at about 4 - 5 km with negative V at ground (-9 m s-1) and positive V above (about 4 m s-1).10:14 BWER @ 5
° elev., 55 km range, 253° AZ10:28 Continuing pol. sec. scans
10:32 LDR (enhanced) marks region of shear.
10:47 Still running pol sec. Cell at 245
° AZ still has 40+ dBZ. Other cells up north have weakened. Circulation is evident especially at higher elevation angles.11:01 The shear at 5 km through the cell is about most interesting thing. One area @ 45 km had cloud top at 12 km. With increasing height the velocity again went negative and then positive at cloud top. Peak Z's are 42 dBZ.
11:20 RHI @ 195
° looking at cell 20 km away (still using pol sec loop).11:32 Can see very distinct LDR BB in RHI @ 5 - 6 km AGL. Can also see BB in Zdr and
r hv with Zebra.12:34 Changed center of 120
° far polsec to 225° to capture shallow convection to SW better. Shifted RHI's to 244° .Note: Put height vs. slant range table on inside of back cover of log book.
Note: Lost full matrix data during daylight hours yesterday. Tape problems. Typical dual-polarimetric fields were recorded.
13:21 Most precip to southwest topped at 8
° -10° elev. Therefore, will switch to 7-tilt survey loop which goes up to 9° . Stopped farpolsec and started loop survey 7-tilt 360° .13:24 A few isolated "popcorn" cells to ENE (65
° ). Tops around 5.5 km. Max dBZ 40 - 45 dBZ.13:30 Tried to contact TOGA unsuccessfully for 10 minutes on cell phone. Will try again later.
13:40 Precip. to SW is mixture of decayed convection with bright band and lumpy embedded shallow convection. Interestingly, there is more phase shift (positive) above the bright band them below. Hydrodynamically oriented ice I would guess. Zdr's in this region are on the order of 0.5 to 1.0 dB.
13:43 More isolated convection popping up between 30
° - 90° in Azimuth and R > 30 km. This popcorn convection is in the southern portion of the eastern DD lobes and quickly heading out of lobe toward east-southeast (ESE) moving at 9 m s-1.13:54 Some 45 dBZ toward NE (35
° ) at 35 km in range.14:03 Cells to E-ENE (30
° -90° ) are multiplying.14:16 Rotated RHI's to center @ AZ 50
° to look at developing convection. Peak Zh is 50 dBZ. Tops at 7 km.14:25 Rotated RHI center to 60
° . 360° surv. not topping cell to ENE. RHI's are covering vert. structure. After 1.1° tilt in 360° , will switch to sector (farpolsec) nice RHI's through isolated cells at R=30 - 50 km and AZ of 54° - 66° .14:35 Stopped survey. Started farpolsec (120
° ) centered on 75° AZ with RHI's centered on 65° .14:48 Rotated RHI center to 68
° . Tops around 7 - 7.5 km still with 30 dBZ pretty much below 5 km. Peak Zh of 52 dBZ down low at 2 km or so.15:00 Rotated RHI center to 75
° .15:16 Rotated RHI center to 85
° .15:25 Down for maintenance.
15:46 Back on the air running 2-tilt 360
° to see what's going on.15:52 Stopped 2-tilt 360
° and started survey loop. Centered RHI's on 234° to SW to look at cell with D F dp significant @ about R=27 km. Over five cells in RHI. Cells to S-SW-W. 1) stratiform with 14 km tops at ranges > 60 km. 2) isolated cells with tops to 5-7 km. 1 cell new to NNE R = 18 km. 1 new cell ENE R=25km. Cell within 20 km. Flat plate is running. Tops 7 km.16:08 RHI's centered on small cell 17 km to NNE @ AZ of 30
° . Got good high resolution sample in the vertical of most of the cell.16:17 Center of RHI's at 172
° ; interrogating small developing cell to SSE at R=12-15km. Zh max = 50 dBZ. Zdr max=2.5 dB in core 2-4 km AGL.16:27 Saw some Zh of about 55 dBZ in cell to SSE (AZ of 155
° ). Rotated RHI to 155° . Bit of phase shift, Zdr = 1.5 - 2 dB, Zh = 50 dBZ.16:35 Shifted RHI's to center of 229
° to look at mature convection to SW. This feature has persisted since persisted since before shift change. Mature precip. system to southwest looks oceanic or monsoonal in that it has tops to 14 km with 30 dBZ embedded cores with tops to 5-6 km.16:55 Shifted RHI center to 201
° . AZ 206° -207° : 50 dBZ max, 2.5 dB Zdr max, and some diff. phase.17:04 Going clockwise, scattered popcorn showers from 270
° to 330° , isolated showers from 310° to 60° , scattered popcorn from 60° to 180° , from 180° to 270° there is widespread precip. (same place as 1230 UTC this morning). Many isolated cells have max Zh from 50-55 dBZ, max. Zdr from 2 - 2.5 dB, and most 30 dBZ tops < 6 km.17:09 Rotated RHI's to small cell R<30 km to SE (107
° ). Tops to 5 km. Lots of warm rain cells today. No flashes that I saw on flat plate (should double check).Note: Unable to call TOGA all day. It is difficult to even get a signal with a cell phone at the S-pol site. Cell phone comms. are a nightmare. Must find alternative!
17:18 Frequency of popcorn convection increasing. Good day to check for warm rain lightning at R < 60 km. Rotated RHI's to 342
° to look at compact isolated cell with Zh > 50 dBZ at range of 40 km or so. Tops about 9 km.17:26 Shifted RHI's to center AZ of 194
° . Edge of system to SW. Couple of boundaries merged in vicinity earlier. Tops 9-10 km. 30 dBZ tops generally < 6 km; a few pixels poking upward above 6 km.17:40 Shifted RHI's to 122
° to SE to look at isolated cells. Tops @ 6 km. 55 dBZ max reflectivities, Zdr > 3 dB according to Zebra There are peak Zdr of 4.5 dB about 1 km below peak Zh of 55 dBZ.17:47 Shift AZ center to 185
° to look at series of isolated cells.17:59 Shifted RHI AZ to 315
° to precip. very close to radar.18:00 Saw pixel Zh
» 59 dBZ.18:02 Raining at radar; too intense for vertical pointing.
18:08 Stopped antenna.
18:08:33 -
18:15:47 Running vertically pointing mode. Some too saturated but some OK. Looks real good. (Zdr) very close to zero.
18:16 Switched back to loop survey. Some isolated cells are loosely organized in long lines (
» 100 km). Been that way for couple hours now. Nice example just south of radar at 18:20. It passed over radar.18:21 Centered RHI at AZ 120
° through part of line. Lots of small isolated cells, R > 30 km. Cells at R< 30 km has decent phase shift » 0.5 ° km-1. Zh > 50 dBZ, Zdr » 2 dB. More phase shift in general now (heavier rain!). Interesting in blocked sectors to west where there was significant phase shift unaffected by partial blocking while Zh was significantly reduced.18:33 Audible thunder. Saw transient on flat plate. (times approximate). 18:35 audible thunder. Cell right overhead almost. 16 km tops with 35 dBZ > 9 km in height.
18:34 RHI's centered to south. Scanning up to 85
° elevation angle. 16 km tops.18:42 Running 2-tilt 360
° .18:46 Stopped 360
° . Running RHI's to 60° elev. angle centered @ 128° AZ. Cell not as deep.18:52 Stopped RHI's. Running loop survey with RHI's centered 135
° . Interesting how one cell punched into mixed phase and produced lightning. A bit too close to radar for ideal case study but neat none-the-less.18:59 Cells interrogated by RHI's have some 35-40 dBZ to above -10
° C. R » 20-35 km. Rotated RHI's to center AZ of 118° . Cores seem quite tilted at this time. Tilting toward radar (to NW). Low level reflectivities approaching 55 dBZ at 120° AZ. Most 30 - 50 dBZ at heights < 6 km, occasionally 30 dBZ core punches above 6.5 - 7 km. No real precip. over gauges so far today. Still cannot reach TOGA. Very difficult to get signal and when I do I can't get TOGA. Rotated RHI center to 114° . Isolated popcorn in northern half and more organized to south.19:48 Changed center of AZ to 53
° to look at small cell to NE.19:58 RHI's rotated to 120
° .20:06 RHI rotated to 109
° this loop.20:15 RHI to 117
° this loop still widespread convection shallow and mostly outside of 60 km RR.20:46 Shifted RHI this loop to 38
° to examine developing cell @ 60 km. Lot of popcorn convection in E. lobe. This is one of those cells.20:57 Switched RHI back to far storm along 118
° ; other storm was pretty shallow; nothing worth sectoring right now.21:18 Shifted RHI to 64
° to cover that NE cell again - It has managed to hang around for awhile. Not much else besides these two storms.21:26 RHI to 69
° as cells in storm backbuild.21:36 RHI to 72
° for movement.21:43 30 dBZ
³ 7 km AGL, will start polsecs next loop21:47 stopped, started loop far polsec on NE storm, centered on 74
°21:54 Peak Zh > 50 dBZ, 30 dBZ > 10 km in height in places.
21:55 RHI to 77
° due to motion, storm » 80 km out.22:04 30 dBZ > 12 km AGL now; too bad too far away for either FCM.
22:06 RHI to 80
° for motion this next loop. This is a really nice storm; great vertical development; high Zh; haven't checked MP variables yet.22:13 MP Particle ID shows heavy rain, Zdr's up to 4 dB or so.
22:17 RHI to 82
° this loop.22:27 RHI to 87
° this loop; storm appears to be weakening and growing in areal coverage.22:38 RHI to 85
° this loop; storm consists of two main cells now; RHI through N. cell; still appears to have weakened somewhat.22:57 RHI to 88
° ; storm now a shallow line along this radial or thereabouts W. edge about 90 km, so may switch away from this cell back to surv to see what else may be worthy.23:06 RHI to 89
° for motion. NW cell of interest is weakening & has less rain will stick with east storm for now.23:12 Seeing significant
Y dp shift aloft in RHI.23:16 RHI to 305
° to check on storm @ 60 km this loop.23:21 RHI shows forward cell not too bad, shallow though (< 7 - 8 km).
23:25 Stopped, restarted loop far polsec on NW storm @ 305
° , 60 km.23:36 OK, we are officially missing a halfway decent D-DOP case due to poor communications with TOGA. I can't even call Steve R.'s phone at the hotel. The storm in question is a bit off the baseline in the W. lobe, on the N. edge of the major block. Tops to 15 km, 30 dBZ to about 8 km or so. Thought about using sat phone but we need dialing info. for it.
23:44 FCM (field change meter) started.
23:54 Storm now touching baseline, forms a small SW-NE line; switched RHI to 294
° to cover strongest cell on S. end of line; storm is just gonna miss gauge network #2.00:00 RHI shows shallow cell, tops at 6-7 km, but very intense; Peak Zh @ 50+ dBZ.
00:04 Stopped; restarted loop w/ near polsec centered on 315
00:11 Vert. development is intense but shallow, likely under the threshold for electrification, as FCM seems to be showing.
00:15 RHI this loop on 335
° , E. edge of line.00:23 Changed PPI center to 325
° next loop.00:24 RHI to 340
° to cover most intense portion of line; left edge of sector clipping W. edge of line; shifted PPI a bit too much I guess. May need to switch to like surv scans due to proximity and size of storm.00:32 30 dBZ to 7 km or so; switching PPI to center on 320
° to prevent some of the clipping.00:35 RHI to 354
° to maintain on strongest cell. Beautiful RHI's last loop; still clipping on W. edge a bit; less linear now.00:40 Lucked out, w/ storm basically on baseline D-Dop wouldn't be a good idea.
00:42 Zdr's not spectacularly high, about 2.5 dB at peak.
00:44 Running survey loop w/ RHI now due to proximity. Rain @ S-pol. RHI @ 354
° , as good as any about now; windy @ S-pol too.00:56 RHI to 213
° to cover S. portion of storm.01:02 PRECIP ID & MP variables suggest widespread light to moderate rain within 40 km of S-POL; RHI shows shallow convection.
01:07 RHI this loop to 200
° to continue monitoring S. portion of storm.01:10 Drizzle to light rain now @ S-pol.
01:19 Switched RHI this loop to 40
° to cover N. portion of storm. Again, airport network just missed this storm.01:24 Convection in N. weakening
01:28 RHI this scan to 193
° to cover portion of S. convection; everything is widespread now.01:39 RHI to 156
° to cover strongest portion of S. convection01:48 RHI to 143
°01:58 RHI to 151
° ; S. convection about the strongest thing around right now, but still pretty shallow and nondescript.02:58 Switched RHI to developing cell at 44
° , 75 km03:02 Attempts to reach TOGA for possible D-Dop. ops on convection in E. lobe fails.
03:06 RHI reveals yet another shallow cell, mostly under 6 km
03:08 RHI to 48
° ; NE portion of E. lobe is main center of activity now, but still nothing much above 6 km, apparently.03:19 RHI to 59
° as storm builds on forward flank; another batch of cells closing in E. lobe from N.03:28 RHI to 353
° to focus on next batch of cells » 100 km out.03:37 RHI reveals yet more shallow convection.
03:41 RHI to 357
°03:49 RHI to 34
° to cover developing cell @ 105 km.03:52 We are missing a D-Dop. opportunity on the widespread shallow convection in E. lobe due to poor comm. with TOGA.
04:10 Running 7-tilt survey. No RHI's. Widespread low echo region across northern hemisphere of display. Few pixels at
» 42 dBZ most Zh < 32 dBZ. Cell movement is NW to SE.05:18 Still running 7-tilt survey scans.
05:25 Running RHI centered at 45
° AZ.05:29 Running 7-tilt survey.
06:12 Running 7-tilt survey with low el. RHI centered @ 55
° AZ. Widespread strat. to north and east of radar. Max dBZ about 40.07:23 Still running same sequence. Another well defined BB @ 64
° AZ.07:51 Status quo. Clouds tops @
» 8 km. Widespread strat. with a few pockets of convection. Everything shallow with 40 dBZ about max Z.08:52 Widespread low reflectivities in the northern hemisphere. Nothing of significance.
09:59 Still widespread stratiform in northern hemisphere with max dBZ of < 40 dBZ. Abandoning RHI scans.
11:13 Running RHI centered at 30
° AZ looking at BB (bright band). Cloud top » 9-10 km.11:18 Running 7-tilt survey. Widespread stratiform region now located more in NE quadrant. Cell have more southerly flow now rather than NW to SE as was a few hours ago.
11:51 Running an RHI centered at
» 30° AZ even BB signature is weak now! Max. dBZ £ 30.11:54 Running 7-tilt survey.
12:20 There is a "bullseye TRMM overpass" today from 1551 - 1605. It will be over the radars around 1554 (descending node). Strategy: Run pol. 360
° or sector to try and top whatever is within range of radar. In addition (if possible), throw in some high elevation 360° PPI tilts if there is precip. within < 10 km or maybe <20 km.12:35 Unable to raise TOGA with cell phone. Tried for 5 minutes. Cell phone network is still screwed up.
13:00 Stopped 7-tilt survey and restarted "loop survey" with RHI's to NE (45
° ).13:50 Stopped loop survey. Running 2-tilt.
13:53 Running rain gauge loop #2. There is some light rain approaching gauge network #4 to NW so I'm sampling to get some experience. Note that gauge sectors are at 0.7
° and 1.2° to get a bit above the partial blocking. Rain is light. Not a great case really.14:30 Rain is very light now. Drizzle almost.
14:33 Terminated gauge 2,3,4 sector and restarted loop survey. RHI's 60
° .14:35 "Blob" of weak, shallow, widespread precip. to NNW (330
° ) and NE (60° ). Isolated to scattered weak/shallow precip. to south (90° -120° ).14:49 Shifted RHI's to NW (324
° ).14:57 Shifted RHI's to NE (57
° )15:10 Could do DD in eastern lobe (far) but cannot contact TOGA with cell phone. Will stop survey and restart at 15:20 to synch up with TOGA in survey scans at least. We are topping most precip. with 9
° elevation angle.15:20 Restarted loop survey.
Note: TOGA restarts a ten-minute scan cycle "on the tens" 00, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 minutes past the hour. Unless otherwise requested, they're doing 360
° PPI's with a few RHI's. Since they spin faster, the actually have higher tilt angles in their 360° surv. So, theoretically, we could do a half-baked synchronization any time we want. If convection is very close to TOGA (R < 30 km), they may not be topping. Otherwise they probably are. So, try this method if another DD opportunity arises without communications to TOGA. "RE-SYNCH ON THE TENS."15:28 More high Zdr in ice above freezing level. Data looks bad in some spots (high
Ñ Zh) but looks good in some spots. Zdr is 0.75 - 1.50 dB (some 2) above and 0.4 - 1.0 dB below freezing level. Weak bright band.15:32 Widespread, weak shallow precipitation to north. Very disorganized (chaotic). Similar but more scattered to south.
15:41 TRMM overpass. Stopped 7-tilt survey/RHI loop. Started at 10:25 long 360
° PPI with 0.5, 1.1, 2.5, 4, 5.5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 30° elevation angles. The last high angle is for Dr. Chandrasekar at CSU/EE but this case is less than ideal. I'll try it once and remove it. Running 30° angle @ 15:51 or so. Could be some drizzle in the high tilt angle. During overpass, some light rain in gauge network #1 (airport). This overpass is a bust. Will restart loop survey @ 16:20 to synch up with TOGA.Note: I created a "SURVEY 2" that lasts about ten minutes (595 sec) that you can use for general surveillance without RHI's. It goes up to 15
° .16:34 One cell has high Zdr (2-3 dB) and some phase shift. About 135
° .16:40 RE-synched. Running Survey 2. Cell to SE (135
° ) R» 75 km is still most intense. 38 dBZ up to about 7 km.17:13 Echoes looking more convective (cellular) to south. Bright band features in LDR, Zdr,
F dp, r hv to east. Not as obvious in Zh. This could be "polarimetric bright band" in decaying convection.17:23 Cell to south producing moderate rain Zdr
» 1-2 dB, D F dp is evident in 2-3 cells. Considering far polsec to south: 120° -240° outside of DD lobes and gauge networks but cells are most interesting.17:30 Stopped "Survey 2." Started loop far polsec. Cell @ AZ. 190
° , R» 55-60km has Zhmax » 53-55 dBZ, Zdrmax » 2.5 - 2.75 dB, evident phase shift.17:46 Zdr column of 2-3 dB up to 3-4 km Zh > 50 dB, measurable phase. Cell toward 190
° continues to have Zhmax» 53 dBZ and Zdrmax» 2.5 dB and good phase shift at low levels (about 2 km). Tops to 7-8 km (cirrus above that at 9-10 km).17:55 Above features still there up to 3.5 km. Zdrmax
» 3 dB.17:59 RHI's centered on 188
° . Very broad area of moderate reflectivities to the east at R > 90 km (45° - 135° ).18:10 Rotated RHI's to 175
° . Convection to south is moving outside of 60 km.18:19 Stopped loop far polsec.
18:20 Re-started loop survey in "synch" (+/- 3 sec) with TOGA. RHI's centered on blob of precip. to east @ AZ of 68
° . No obvious polarimetric bright band. A lumpy Zh bright band. Low level winds veered during the day from 320° (NW) to about 30° or 40° (NE). There is a backing profile with height.18:32 Rotated RHI's to weak convection over TOGA to have a look.
18:53 Rotated RHI's to 160
° .19:39 Stopped
19:40 Restarted running "Survey 2" 10 min surveillance scan (No RHI).
21:27 Too nice outside and too clear on the radar screen to be inside.
23:14 Severely clear out there.
04:22 Running 7-tilt survey with RHI. A few weak cells are appearing in the NE. Appear to be moving S-SE. Max dBZ less than 40. Some 40+ dBZ in BB.
04:27 Small cells are popping up across the entire display area. Can see a rotation signature at top of cell
04:29 RHI scan reveals nice BB. 8 km cloud tops.
05:20 Continuing 7-tilt survey with RHI centered at 214
° AZ. RHI show nice BB cell at 35 km. Cloud top » 8 km. Scattered activity/small cells across radar scan area.06:04 The limited activity is subsiding. Running 10-tilt survey scan and No RHI. BB today marked well by enhanced reflectivity today (i.e., 12 PM - 8 AM shift). The previous two day LDR was a better indicator and the Z BB was not very visible or undetectable even though there was a very good LDR BB.
06:14 Running 2-tilt survey scan.
08:00 Just a few isolated cells with less than 35 dBZ.
08:12 Running 5-tilt angle survey loop.
10:27 Running vertical pointing scan. (EDITOR NOTE: NOT vertically point angle; list incorrect). Very, very light rain at radar.
10:30 Running 5-tilt survey. Just scattered weak activity.
11:05 Running vertical point
» 60 sec. (EDITOR NOTE: scan list not correct; not an acceptable vertically pointing scan).11:07 Back to 5-tilt angle survey scan. A few cells now south of the radar.
11:26 Running loop survey with RHI scan. There is wide spread echo region south of radar within 40 km.
11:33 Running RHI centered at 234
° AZ. Another nice BB. Cloud tops at 7-8 km. BB at 4-5 km. Maybe Zh reached 45 dBZ in BB.11:44 RHI centered at 234
° AZ.NOTE: I forgot to mention that a vertically pointing scan designed by Jon Lutz is in "brazil.scn." 3.5
° s-1, 256 samples, various elev. angles » 90° , » 2 min. long. Use when light rain or drizzle overhead. Grab every opportunity if possible.12:10 Running solar calibration. Will be down for 1 - 2 hours. Power fluctuated by
» 0.01 dB. Pretty good.13:26 Radar is back up now. Running "Survey 2" which is a 5-tilt 360
° PPI repeated twice every ten minutes. (5 minute per volume). No RHI's.14:25 Isolated cells with tops
£ 6-7 km. Peak Zh » 30-32 dBZ. Yippie. Westerly @ surface. Above surface, veers low level winds out of NNE. Lots of blue sky there. Muito heating. Let's hope we're prepping for deep convection late afternoon. Otherwise, it's a yawner.15:39 Continued isolated to widely scattered weak to moderate, shallow cells. Tops to 5-6 km, Zh < 30 dBZ. Easily topping everything within Rmax with 5.5
° .NOTE: Partial blocked to west at 0.5
° and a little at 1.1° at Azimuths: 250° -315° . Partially blocked 1.1° still badly blocked between about 255° and 270° .16:22 Only few weak showers about. No signs of development yet. Still hopeful that something will fire with this good heating.
16:58 Stopped Survey 2.
16:59 Started 2-tilt-PPI while working on gauge scan in trmm7.scn. This will cover all gauges at once with no RHI's.
trmm7.scn: 1. all gauges: 80
° PPI, right AZ 37° , left AZ 317° ; AZ rate of 5° s-1; samples of 128, approximate time of 481 sec, beamwidth of 0.752° . 2. 2-tilt 360° : 117 sec. Real time total: 593 sec.17:18 Stopped 2-tilt 360
° . Start: 17:18:20 testing loop surface net. Stop: 17:28:13.17:29 Stopped testing trmm7.scn (loop surface net) and restarted "survey 2." The waiting for something to happen scan.
NOTE: trmm7.scn (loop surface net): is ready to go. Use it when there is widespread precipitation over all or most of the gauge/disdrometer networks and/or profiler.
17:38 Scan files backed-up (*.scn).
NOTE: "Unambiguous range" = Rmax = C/(2*PRF)=3x108 m s-1/(2*850 s-1) = 176 km. However, we are collecting full polarimetric matrix data so we are limited to 1040 gates (149.9 m per gate). 1040 x 149.9 m
» 156 km, which is our actual maximum range in full pol. mode.17:58 Still only isolated weak showers about the region. Most echo > 15 dBZ is between 3.5 and 5 km. Weak echo seems to be primarily located just below freezing level. Very little precip. getting to 0.5
° to 1.1° tilts. All still £ 25 dBZ.18:36 Moderate reflectivity (30-35 dBZ) cores popping up distant (R>120 km) NE (30
° -60° ).18:39 40 dBZ max! at R
» 150 km. What excitement.19:06 New 40+ dBZ to WSW about 90 km. Died 10 minutes later. Moderate cells still to NE R
³ 120km: 40+ dBZ. New cell 120 km to east. I'm desperate for something R < 60 km.19:46 More widespread very weak Cu/TCu R < 60 (Zh < 10 dBZ). Some cells mod. strength Zh > 35 dBZ. R > 60 dBZ. Mostly to NE: 0
° - 60° ; a little to SSW (200° ) little to E. New 40 dBZ cell to west (268° ) R=70 km.20:10 Widely scattered moderate showers, popcorn cells. Most intense still to NE R
³ 120km. Small cells 60 km west. Lots of weak popcorn TCu Z< 10 dBZ to west.20:16 Cell to NE (35
° ) at R=118 km has tops to 9 km.20:20 Most cells R
³ 120 km to NE-E have Zh ³ 40 dBZ. Also, cell to west (275° ), R=57 km.20:22 Cells getting deeper. Will re-synch to 20:30 w/ 7-tilt survey. 50 dBZ in cell to west R=60 dBZ.
20:30 Running loop survey,rhi (7-tilt, RHI's to west, 276
° ) after stopping Survey 2. Very high Zdr > 3 dB, 55 dBZ max, in cell to west. Few cells in heart of western lobe. Scattered cells in outer edge of eastern lobe. We're synched with TOGA and appear to be topping all convection with 360° surveillance up to 9° elev. angle. So, I don't have to pick a lobe just yet. Zdr > 3 dB off scale tops 9 km and building.20:57 Just barely topping cell to west with 9
° elev. angle, 11-12 km tops. Decisions, decisions. Cells to NE are more numerous but at long range. Cell in west lobe is closer but in partial blocked region. Stuff in east lobe is moving toward baseline. West lobe cell nearly stationary. Rotated RHI's to 270° to catch smaller cells to WSW. Still topping with 9° .21:11 Tops to 10-11 km to west (R=60 km). Larger complex (L=30km wide) to ESE @ R=130-150 km.
21:14 Small cell @ R=62 km, AZ=211
° has Zh=53 dBZ. Topping 10 dBZ with 9° elev. angle.21:20 Stuff to west starting to show movement to WSW/SW.
21:24 Shifted RHI sector to 251
° to look at popcorn CB’s.21:25 Big stuff coming in from east. Might be a disorganized "squall line" of sorts. Too far away to tell. Az: 90
° -120° . R: 120-160 km.21:33 Shift RHI's to look at "big stuff"/convective line to east. Center AZ: 102
° . Max. elev. angles overkill but will. Huge anvil: 90-100 km stretching to west.21:40 About 100 km of this MCS/conv. line is now visible on scope to east. Conv. in eastern lobe (R>100 km) is less impressive but hanging together. I'm still topping with 9
° . Will re-synch @ 2150.21:48 Shift RHI to 105
° . Will update next time. Nice anvil! Tops around 14 km - 15 km.21:50 Restarted loop survey to synch with TOGA (within ten seconds or so). Changed max elev. angle on RHI's to 12
° to stop scanning clear air so much. Should finish in about 10 min.21:52 Nice conv. line to ESE with
³ 50 dBZ over 40 km long. Something very large is emerging from the east. So far I'm topping convection in far eastern lobe with 9° . May have to make a decision later whether to top eastern lobe or continue to document full structure of MCS to far east. This MCS is south of eastern lobe and will miss with current vector to ESE.21:58 Interesting cells developing beneath monster anvil to east. See RHI's. Very nice RHI's of leading anvil and distant convective core. +50 dBZ cores developing directly under anvil is fascinating. Finished cycle within +/- 30 sec. of 10 minutes.
22:02 There appears to be convection organized along a huge line (L>150 km) entering eastern side of maximum coverage. Should be good night.
22:07 Topping all except MCS anvil with 9
° elevation angle surveillance. There are multiple cores ahead of original line feeding this anvil.22:10 Re-synched. Rotated RHI's to 108
° . Line in far NE part of eastern lobe continuing to develop. Will try to make sure it is topped. 9° still topping lobes. I'm concerned that 2° beam spacing between 7° and 9° is not ideal. Making up 360° surveillance "on the fly." Az. rate: 6.2° ; Beamwidth: 0.93° ; Samples: 128; Simulated time: 595 sec. Angles: 0.5, 1.7, 2.9, 4.1, 5.3, 6.5, 7.7, 8.9, 10.1, 11.3° (1.2° elevation beam spacing). This is now "Survey 2." OLD Survey 2: 6.2° s-1, 128 samples, 300 s, 0.93° , 0.5, 1.1, 2.5, 4, 5.5° .22:30 Running Survey 2.
22:33 Very respectable cell punching through old anvil @ 105
° AZ, R=71 km. Heavy rain.Just realized I don't have 1.1
° scan for NCAR rain accumulation.22:49 Stopped antenna.
22:50 Re-synched with big line ppi (Az left: 317.5
° ; Az right: 182.5° ; Az rate: 6.3° s-1; bwidth: 0.95° ; samples: 128; elev angles: .5, 1.6, 2.7, 3.8, 4.9, 6, 7.1, 8.2, 9.3, 10.4, 11.5, 12.6, 13.7° . Basically focusing to east but still getting surveillance. Synched to within 7 sec.23:00 Lightning to N-NE 1 every minute or two. Too far for flat plate??. Two centers of lightning. 1. due N., 2. NNE.
23:28 Stuff to distant east falling apart as we loose diurnal insolation.
23:29 Few per minute of in-cloud lightning in convection to North and SE. Heavy rain to North 80 km with cell producing lightning. Easily topping with 13.7
° . Could back off and add RHI's. Topping around 12° . Will leave alone for now. Convection in eastern lobe with lightning should be good DD case.23:41 A bit out of synch with TOGA.
23:50 Re-synch.
00:02 Antenna ramps up every 180
00:08 Stopped
00:10 Running hi-res D-Dop (trmm1.scn) on N. storm centered @ 348
° (RHI too). Antenna cooperating now.00:12 Actually, moving RHI to cover S. storm @ 126
° , at least get some data that way.00:19 N. storm is redeveloping outside lobes, S. storm mostly shallow.
00:25 TRMM satellite overpass. SE quad.
00:29-:30 Stopped to resynch. on 10's; both N. and S. storms weakening; N. storm moving out of lobes. Will start surveys after this loop moving RHI to developing cell @ 95
° , 70 km.00:40 Stopped; started loop far polsec on E. storm, centered on 95
° . RHI set on 100° .00:58 Storm weakening; will switch to surv. scans after this loop.
01:00 Stopped, running survey 2 scan (trmm4.scn)
01:05 Noticed elevation angles on survey 2 were messed up by "big line ppi." Will switch to "Survey loop, RHI" to maintain 10 min resolution.
01:10 Running survey to adjust elevation heights; RHI's are screwed up. Will change big line fixed angle list back to old survey 2 setup. Currently big line is (fixed angle list #4): 0.5, 1.6, 2.7, 3.8, 4.9, 6.0, 7.1, 8.2, 9.3, 10.4, 11.5, 12.6, 13.7
°01:17 Switched survey 2 to 0.5, 1.7, 2.9, 4.1, 5.3, 6.5, 7.7, 8.9, 10.1, 11.3
° as a few pages back, will restart on the 20.01:19 Stopped.
01:20 Restarted Survey2 scan.
03:00 S-pol problems stopped scan; like every other ray is garbage (EDITOR NOTE: According to Bob Rilling, data packet loss.)
03:07 Data look fine now; survey2 continues
03:34 Stopped.
03:37 Running rain gauge loop (trmm2.scn). Some spotty cells over network #4. Centered RHI's on 327
° .03:45 Probably light to moderate rain at gauges #4.
03:59 No major cores have hit gauges yet, but they are still in echo; gauge scans continue.
04:30 Stopped; main cores weakened & moved away from gauges.
04:31 Restarted survey2.
06:35 She's deader than a doornail out there.
10:32 Some suspended very light strat. precip. to our north; remaining in surveillance.
12:19 Returned Survey2 to original state. Az rate: 6.2
° s-1 (0.93° ). Samples: 128; El. angles: 0.5, 1.1, 2.5, 4, 5.5° .12:20 Re-started Survey2 loop with above angles.
Note: For hydrometeorology (LBA and TRMM) purposes, we should try to make sure there is a 1.1
° elev. angle 360° surveillance once very ten minutes. 0.5° is badly blocked and 1.5° -1.7° is getting a bit high. Also, NCAR precip accum. and movie loop looks for 1.1° beam.12:47 Winds have veered around to SSW closer to surface and SSE to E aloft with backing height. Generally southerly now. Probably correlated with re-emergence of S. Atlantic Conv. Zone. Convection last night. There is an overpass. Will sample SE-W Quad. around 1506Z.
13:20 Made contact with TOGA or cell phone. If the opportunity arises, we will try an intercomparison on an isolated cell or stratiform in baseline or E. lobe. Insure minimal propagation through precip. for TOGA. Compare Zh for relative power calibration.
Note: Let's not do any more PPI's > 180
° until Jon Lutz gets back and can fix the problem with antenna controller.14:15 Isolated weak-moderate Zh cells popping up in SE quadrant along a disorganized line from 180
° to 110° . Good for TRMM overpass? Easily topping everything of interest with 5.5° . Line tangent to R=60km. Convection to SE appears to be moving almost due west. Weak precip. (remnants) to NW are moving toward NW. (??) Interesting.14:40 Weak to moderate cells from E (80
° ) clockwise through SSW (210° ) popping up and moving WSW.14:45 New moderate showers popping up from 270
° to 330° (NW). Isolated cells , shallow warm rainers.1450-1500 Everything is outside of R=60km. Topping mostly. Topping about 10-15 dBZ everywhere. Will leave this scan for TRMM overpass. There is not any precip. within 60 km so high elevation angles are not possible or necessary.
15:00 Cells in NW quadrant showing signs of intensification with Zh up to low 50's dBZ. Cell at AZ 275
° , R=105 km, has 38 dBZ up to 8 km. Systems to east are horizontally larger but a bit less intense.15:05 53+ dBZ in cell to west. Az. 275
° , R=106 km. 2-3 dB Zdr. +40 dBZ up to 8 km. In blocked zone to west. makes DD less attractive.15:06 TRMM overpass. Will switch to "survey" with 2 more tilts.
15:08 Switched to "survey" with 7-tilts to 8.5
° will get low level update every 7-min for now.15:11 57-59 dBZ in cell to west. R=107 km, AZ: 274
° . 7-8 km AGL! 40 dBZ up to 10 km AGL! Will re-synch. with TOGA at 15:20. Topping 0 dBZ with 8.5° elev. angles for now. 16 km tops on this cell to west. This cell is in far reaches R>100 km of western DD lobe. In partial block region. Nice cell. Bad spot. New cells popping up at 66° to NE at range of 45 km.15:20 Re-synched survey. Considering adding more tilts. What to focus on? Convection all over.
15:30 Running meso far DD east. Fixing center azimuth 1534z. Back to 32
° .15:37 WER in cell to NE. +55 dBZ, > 3 dB Zdr.
15:40 Only topping 10 km @ R=40 km. Will have to switch to meso dd e near @ 1550.
15:50 Running meso dd e (near) (trmm1.scn). Should top cells to NE. Synched up on the tens. Let's hope TOGA is running. Cell phone not working. Inmarsat not working. We should be synched. Fingers crossed. Multiple cells in eastern lobe. Complex to NE (45
° ) R=35 to 75 km. Saw some 60 dBZ! Flare echoes (?!!!) all over the place. Interesting. Hail!?! Drop freezing making hail?16:07 Topping just fine for now.
16:10 meso dd east lobe is place to be. Multiple strong targets. Still synched good. Flare echoes, Zh > 55 dBZ, WER, amazing.
16:15 With this scan, we should top 15 km at R=25 km about.
16:18 Topping real nice. I hope TOGA is scanning. Got through to TOGA. They are scanning. TOGA: 1.0
° beamwidth, topping to 29° elevation angle. They cycle 360° volume in 8 min. and then long range (low PRF) surveillance, and end with RHI's. 10-min. total. We should be well synched.16:30 I've been periodically staring at flat plate. No transients seen (no obvious ones). Could be small blips. Convection is within 40 km.
16:40 Still synched to within 30 sec. May want to re-synch. at 165
° . There's 40 dBZ up to 10-12 km within R=30 km. Should be flashes on flat plate.16:50 Running loop meso dd e. Re-synch.
16:54 Saw a flash on the flat plate.
16:58 Topping all but < 15 dBZ anvil within 25 km.
17:00 Synched to within 5 sec.
17:01 Test flat plate - appears O.K.
17:05 Lots of targets in E. D.D. lobe. Solid line straddles southern edge broken line in central part of E. lobe.
17:07 Visual confirmation of CG on flat plate. Not topping within 25 km but everywhere else O.K. Not topping all flat plate lightning cells.
17:16 Bow echo.
17:30 Re-synched with TOGA.
17:36 Squall line moving west-southwest 40 km h-1.
17:40 Synched within 5 sec. Broken squall line south of E. DD lobe stretching into lobe. Squall line is
» 100 km long and we've got 50-60 km of the line in the lobe. Max Zh's typically > 50 dBZ.17:48 Lots of good phase shift, line of Zdr > 2 dB at leading line.
17:49 Squall line filling in
³ 150 km long.18:00 Stopped and re-synched with TOGA to within 10 sec.
18:10:26-
18:13:30 Vertical pointing scan. No Zdr bias. Preliminary analysis suggests mean Zdr = 0.00 dB, median Zdr = 0.00, Std. Dev. Zdr = 0.18 dB.
18:15 RHI's centered on 22
° NNE.18:17 RHI's centered on 128
° SE.18:20 Back to meso dd e near (trmm1.scn).
18:29 Stopped meso dd e loop.
18:30 Rain gauge 2,3,4 scan. Heavy rain. Bulls eye hit. Inner RHI's 339
° . Outer RHI's over gauge #2.18:34 Shift inner RHI's to 342
° .18:41 Shift inner RHI's to 339
° . Nice RHI! Tops 15 - 17 km.18:45 Shifted inner RHI's to 323
° to cover TOGA.18:55 Gauge #4 getting heavy rain.
19:00 Shifted RHI's to 327
° over gauge #4.19:08 Rain over TOGA. Still in gauge 2,3,4. Shifted RHI's back to 323
° over TOGA.19:20 Talked to TOGA. They had heavy rain, strong outflow with strong winds and 40-50 flashes min-1 off of flat plate.
19:22 Stopped Gauge 2,3,4 loop; Started 2-tilt 360
° .19:29 Stopped 2-tilt 360
° .19:30 Synch with TOGA. Started "hi-res" 90
° dual pol/dual-Doppler sector over profiler with RHI's. Everything centered on 22° . Covering echo. TOGA is scanning. EDITOR NOTE: this "hi-res" scan merely refers to azimuthal and elevational beam spacing. The sector is completed in shorter time but still only updates every 10 minutes. Later in the experiment when comms. with TOGA improved, the hi-res scan was improved to provide 2 DD sector updates every 10 minutes. (See 26 January for implementation of improved hi-res DD scans).20:16 Running loop survey, 7-tilt angle. RHI centered at 240
° AZ. There a line of cells 80 km to the west with 50 dBZ.20:25 Interrupt loop survey.
20:26 RHI's over Abracos for Earle Williams (centered 323
° ).20:31 Back in loop survey, rhi. RHI centered 250
° .20:38 RHI centered at 250
° .20:49 Line of cell 80 km to west. Have tops of
» 14 km. RHI centered @ 270° AZ. Unfortunately, these cells are moving to the west.20:58 RHI centered @ 270
° .21:08 RHI centered @ 275
° . Strong cell to west are subsiding. Entire radar scan area is clearing.21:18 RHI centered @ 275
° .21:28 Still in 7-tilt survey loop mode. RHI centered @ 180
° .21:38 RHI centered @ 180
° . Fairly strong cell @ 180° AZ 110 km. 40° + of phase shift. Velocity sig. at 1.1° and 2.5° show clock wise circulation. 50-55 dBZ max.21:49 RHI centered at 180
° . @ 184° AZ has a pixel or two of 60 dBZ! - 135 km range though and 2.4 to 4.8 km AGL.22:01 RHI centered @ 180
° AZ 50° + of phase shift through storm complex.22:09 RHI centered @ 185
° . Continuing 7-tilt survey loop.22:32 3-body scattering signature @ 189
° AZ in RHI. Negative Zdr in back of core with very high LDR (>-10 dB). But LDR could be due to low SNR.22:40 RHI centered @ 185
° AZ. Continued 3-body scattering feature??22:50 RHI centered @ 190
° AZ.23:00 RHI centered @ 190
° AZ.23:10 Running loop survey2. One 5-tilt angle survey scan in 5 minutes.
23:26 Running loop survey2 with 2 RHI centered @ 260
° to look at some stratiform. Start RHI.23:36 Running loop survey RHI 1. RHI centered at 240
° AZ.23:42 Begin RHI - another nice well defined BB. Seeing some high Zdr at cloud top @ 239
° AZ @ about 30 km. Very consistent feature Zdr=3 dB. Signature look real (i.e., low LDR and high r hv contiguous with the high Zdr). Probably aligned ice crystals. Cloud tops at 7.4 km BB at 4.2 km AGL.23:52 Begin RHI. Continued high Zdr at cloud top.
00:05 RHI at
00:13 Continued high Zdr at cloud top in RHI.
00:43 Begin RHI. Continue 7-tilt survey with RHI centered at 240
° .00:49 Running loop survey2 (no RHI).
03:14 Running surveyrhi2.
03:21 RHI centered @240
° through a weak BB type cell. Zh < 37 dBZ but quite positive Zdr in ice phase.03:31 RHI centered @ 27
° .03:37 Running loop survey2 (no RHI).
10:15 Nice bird ring in Ji-Paraná greater metropolitan area. Otherwise, yet another wasted, sleep deprived night.
12:20 There is a grazing TRMM overpass @ 1355 today. It will graze N-E region. No PR data.
13:20 No luck in contacting TOGA via cell phone.
13:56 Overpass is a bust. SVR CLR. No echoes.
16:23 Weak showers (< 20 dBZ) with a couple of moderate cells (
£ 40 dBZ) popping up slowly over elevated terrain primarily to NNE, E, and W.16:44 Weak-moderate cells more widespread now.
16:50 Re-synched Survey2 to TOGA. A few of these popcorn showers are in the far reaches of the eastern lobe. Almost all cells > 60 km in range.
17:00 Stopped survey2 and started loop survey1 (7-tilt surveillance scan up to 9
° ) with RHI's centered on 80° AZ (small cell to ENE) within 40 km. Cell generally restricted to below 6-7 km. Not topping cells within 40 km. Should consider going to sector. Will wait to see what develops.17:09 Shifting RHI's to 73
° to interrogate intense isolated cell about 130 km out. (The cell) died.17:16 Started flat plate for cells within 40 km. Warm rain cells within flat plate range. Some cells with 35 dBZ tops to 6 km within 40.
17:22 Shifted RHI's back to 85
° to interrogate cells within 40 km for flat plate studies. Tops to 7 km. 30 dBZ tops to 4.8 km. Narrow Zdr > 2 dB up to 5-6 km. These are RHI's of primarily warm rainers. Didn't see any lightning (on flat plate). Nice null case with flat plate?17:36 Zdr > 3 dB in cores to ENE @ about 30 km. 10
° phase shift.17:38 RHI: tops 7.5 - 8 km, 35-40 dBZ up to 6 km. 86
° AZ: convection looking more vigorous, Zh > 50-55 dBZ with WER. Popcorn clouds of 0-5 dBZ everywhere.17:47 Shifted RHI's to 80
° . 40 dBZ up to 5-7 km.17:59 tops to 12 km, 30 dBZ up to 6-7 km.
18:06 Rotated RHI's to 85
° AZ center. Isolated cells nearby: > 50 dBZ at 2-4 km AGL, Zdr > 2 - 3 dB and some phase shift.18:16 Shifted RHI's to look at cell to NE (46
° ) at R=60 km. 30 dBZ up to 9-10 km. 35-40 dBZ up to 8 km. tops 11-12 km.18:20 Re-synched loop survey/rhi to TOGA time. Thinking we may want to do meso dd e far. Stuff to NE seems to be anchored to elevated terrain (which also happens to be jungle).
18:26 30 dBZ still up to 7-8 km to NE (45-48
° ) at R=60 km.18:28 Stopped antenna
18:30 Started loop meso far dd e. Focusing on cells anchored to terrain in middle of E. lobe. 9
° was not topping before. This should top with 16° elevation angle. RHI's centered to NE (44° AZ). Tops 13-14 km. Couldn't reach TOGA with cell phone. Will assume we're synched "on the tens." Tops of cells are being sheared off in NE flow aloft. Big drops. Zdr > 3 dB (off scale). Need to have Jon Lutz fix this. Some phase shift: 40° of phase shift over 8 km or so (Kdp » 2.5° km-1).18:53 One cell bustin' a move at range of 80 km. 30 dBZ up to 16 km @ AZ 34.5
° . Tops around 18 km. Shifted RHI's: 32° - 42° AZ. Nice RHI's.19:00 Re-synched to TOGA. Could not reach them to switch to sectors. OK though. We should be synched. 60
° + phase shift along AZ of 30° . Heavy rain. Topping everything nicely. Very nice RHI's. Getting forward and rear anvil. Stuff is just bubbling over higher terrain in jungle. Each cell rapidly goes through lifecycle. By the time one dies, another is up to 16 km. Some "new" moderate-intense convection at far eastern edge of radar coverage R > 120 km.19:16 High tops to NE: 15-15.5 km, 30-40 dBZ often below 6 km but several cells have 35 dBZ poking up to 8 km. Zdr in convection looked good. Zdr shows hard boundary in convection at melt/freeze level Zdr > 1 dB above freezing level and < 1 dB below. Didn't see +Zdr aloft as in stratiform. Electric fields affecting fall mode or just irregular ice due to riming, aggregation and splintering ? LDR looks good too.
19:20 Synched to within 20 sec.
19:30 Re-synch by restarting meso dd far east (trmm6.scn file).
19:32 Cell building closer to radar R
» 38 km in DD lobe east. System is slowly moving toward west as seen in loop. Suggests no longer tied to terrain and is sustaining itself with cold pool. We're not at good angle to see low level convergence. 50 km long forward anvil with wind coming out of NE toward us. Rotated RHI's to 22° .20:10 Running RHI meso. Change elevation max. angle to 17
° from 34° and had to change timing for 10 minute loop.20:20 Sync. meso dd scan. RHI centered @ about 14
° AZ. Again positive Zdr's in ice phase. RHI sector centered at 90° AZ. Intense core at about 100 km.20:48 RHI back to other cell centered @ 10
° AZ.21:00 Cell to north has dissipated - not much left to it.
21:19 Abandon meso dd e scans. Now using high res 90
° sector to look at storm complex to east. Both PPI and RHI centered @ 108° AZ.21:23 Begin RHI. Cloud tops
» 14 km. 30 dBZ to 9.7 km.21:29 Now complex forming a continuous line of 40 dBZ (North to South) across entire display.
21:36 Reduced max. elev. angle on RHI scan and widened sector to maintain 10 min. loop.
21:42 RHI centered at 120
° AZ.21:50 Synching hi-res dd. North edge of cell is entering East DD lobe. 30 dBZ to 12.9 km @ 108
° AZ, 72 km range.22:04 RHI centered at 64
° to look at part of line entering DD lobe e (east). Largest cell is to southern end of line outside DD lobe.Note: RHI's continue to show +Zdr in ice phase - seem too much! Bias?? EDITOR NOTE: Vertically pointing consistently showed little or no Zdr bias. Could be oriented ice.
22:20 Synch meso dd e (far). Moved center to 90
° to scan entire complex. RHI's centered at 64° AZ.22:24 Movie loop shows outflow boundary toward radar. Cloud tops to 14.5 km. 40 dBZ to 6.4 km (AZ = 60
° ). 30 dBZ to 10 km in AZ=73° .23:02 Eastern cell is about 50 km range. Lightning observed outside.
23:10 Synched meso dd e far centered at 90
° to cover entire complex.23:16 RHI centered at 147
° . Through the most intense cell that is producing most lightning. 55+ dBZ core. Lots of phase shift » 50° with Kdp » 2.5-3° km-1. > 45 dBZ for about 15 km.23:30 Synched meso dd far loop. RHI centered at 53
° .23:40 Synched meso dd e near (trmm1.scn) since cells are close now. No RHI's. Storm complex to east is very widespread now. Most intense section is south. Good cell has moved in from the NNE into DD east lobe.
00:03 Cell in near east lobe has dissipated. Cell in far east DD lobe is 100 km away. Cell to south is most interesting but out of DD lobe
00:06 Running 2-tilt 360
00:10 Synch meso dd e scan.
00:17 Running RHI meso.
00:18 Running 2-tilt 360
° .00:20 Synch meso far dd e. Will follow the distant cell in lobe for a bit.
00:23 Aborted meso far dd e. There is a 40+ dBZ cell over profiler. Running rain gauge #1/profiler scan. Can't believe it; 45-50 dBZ just to north AND south of profiler. But the north cell did go over the rain gauges.
00:35 Cell over gauge network gone. Running meso dd e far (trmm6.scn).
00:38 Running 2-tilt 360
° . Need to focus on something!00:50 Running meso dd e far. Not that much in DD lobe.
01:00 Running 7-tilt survey loop.
01:07 RHI center @ 320
° AZ. At AZ 322° , could top 17 km at 96 km range.01:19 Running 2-tilt 360
° .01:22 Running meso dd far scan centered at 34
° to track all activity in North and Northwest. Strong cell centered at ~ 305° with part of complex in dd west lobe. Weaker activity <~ 40 dBZ in far region of east dd lobe.01:30 Synched meso dd far centered at 340
° AZ. Lots of lightning from complex in northwest ~ 330° AZ. Good light show.01:50 Continue meso dd centered at 340
° . Things are dissipating everywhere.02:04 RHI centered at 290
° . Main part of cell is 120+ km range.02:10 Synch meso dd 340
° .02:15 RHI @ 180
° .02:25 RHI @ 285
° AZ center.02:35 RHI @ 285
° AZ. Things are fairly uninteresting now. RHI is blocked at low elev. angles.02:50 Begin 7-tilt survey loop with RHI.
02:56 RHI @ 310
° .03:06 RHI @ 310
° . Cloud tops @ about 10-11 km. Not a real pronounced BB like seen previous days. Widespread echo area that covers NW quadrant with dBZ less than ~42.03:17 RHI at 328
° center. Not really BB/strat. type system now.03:43 RHI shifted to 311
° this loop to cover the main stratiform region.03:47 Most everything out there appears to be weakening, some scattered convection moving in from East but not too impressive and given trend I do not anticipate needing to switch to sectors; 7.0
° topping basically everything right now, so sticking with surveys; may turn off RHI's soon but not just yet. Nice bright band (BB) in stratiform to NW, but storm moving out of unambiguous range.03:53 RHI's to 80
° this loop to cover incoming convection to East.03:59 RHI's show incoming convection to be shallow, 5-6 km basically; appears to be popcornish in nature.
04:00 Attempts at vertically pointing. Not enough power?
04:26 RHI's switched to 30
° to cover developing cell at 75 km.04:32 RHI's show cells in E. lobe to be shallow but intense; will synch with TOGA on the 40 for DD.
04:36 Cells w/in 40 km of S-pol; turning on FCM (field change meter).
04:37 Stopped antenna.
04:40 Running loop hires far dd (trmm6.scn) on NE lobe, centered @ 50
° ; RHI on cell in sweet spot @ 30° .04:48 DD topped all except some cells w/in 20 km, shifting center to 55
° , RHI to 32° .04:55 Convection is all still pretty shallow; D-Dop continued at 0450.
04:59 Stopped; reordered loop hires far dd (trmm6.scn) to have 2-tilt 360
° in center so low angle surv. not cut off when resynch; this way, less critical RHI's get the axe.05:00 Re-synched DD and restarted loop.
05:10 Restarted, clipping left edge of main storm; will switch to meso fr dd e next loop switched order of 360
° 's and RHI's in meso. loops too. RHI on 27° this loop; some convection near profiler.05:18 Stopped; oops, a bit too early.
05:20 Re-synched running meso fr dd e. RHI @ 27
° .05:30 Meso. DD loop restarted. RHI to 20
° .05:32 Movie shows long line of very weak, shallow convection forming and running from way beyond E. lobe, through S-pol, then WSW through much of the W. lobe; some sort of boundary there; light rain @ S-pol.
05:40 Resynched, RHI @ 18
° ; stuff looks like it's weakening; airport's been getting light rain it appears.05:47 Gauge net #2 being grazed by drizzle to light rain.
05:50 RHI to 9
°05:57 Stopped during RHI's.
05:58 Running loop surface net (trmm7.scn) to cover cell over net #2. Light to moderate rain @ gauges according to particle ID; main D-Dop. cell dying out.
06:18 Stopped; running loop survey RHI1 with RHI @ 22
° to focus on storm far to NE; gauges out of rain now.06:30 RHI to 72
° to focus on strat. precip. in S. portion of E. lobe.06:38 Stopped, will run meso fr DD E. on strat. precip. next 10
06:40 Synched & running meso fr DD E with RHI @ 75
° , strat. is weak and probably weakening.06:48 Significant and Kdp aloft, above freeze level.
06:50 Resynched; D-DOP continues, RHI to 73
° .07:00 D-Dop. continues.
07:10 Resynched, RHI to 353
° to focus on strat. precip. to N. (still in E. lobe); reflectivities are pretty low on everything w/in reasonable range.07:20 Resynched; have 40 dBZ in bright band on N. storm.
07:25 Added another sweep to RHI meso scan in order to better synch. meso dd loop.
07:30 D-Dop continues, adding 1 sweep really helped synch the loop better.
07:40 Resynched, RHI to 57
° to focus on E. storm again; reflectivities weakening, will switch back to surv. after this.07:50 Running survey2 scan (trmm4.scn).
08:03 Running loop survey rhi1 while I change angles on survey 2; RHI on 275
° .08:07 Changed survey2 to following angles: 0.5, 1.1, 2.3, 3.5, 4.7, 5.9, 7.1, 8.3, 9.5, 10.7
° for ~ 10 min. duration.08:10 Synched and running survey2 scan; wanted higher elevation angles to top more of weak strat. precip, synched for D-Dop. just in case anyone cares about airflow in 20-30 dBZ echo.
09:32 Clearing up out there.
11:02 Another bird ring around Ji_Paraná this morning.
12:25 -
12:30 Goofing around with scan files and accidentally added a few extra sweeps to 360
° by switching scan files while radar is spinning.12:30 Restarted 10-tilt survey 2 which re-starts every ten minutes. As I see it, there are two options for survey2. I've written the two options down on the inside jacket cover in the front of the log. Switch manually as needed.
Note: There are 2 TRMM overpass at 1418z and 2359z today. 1418z: TRM/LIS: No PR descending; SE-NW half. 2359z: TRM/LIS; No PR ascending graze W-N quad.
12:53 Changed survey2 (360
° ) back to 5-tilt 360° (5-min) up to 5.5° since there is not much precip. above 5.5° .Note: If there is light rain or drizzle over the antenna, let's take every opportunity to accomplish a vertically pointing scan (brazil.scn). Run it for 2 or 3 minutes. Check H-power button (2nd from left). We are looking for H-power
£ -50 dBm and ³ -90 dBm for ideal situation. Noise Power ~ -115 dBm to -118 dBm. Vertically pointing scans confirmed 0 dB bias to date.14:20 TRMM overpass sampling ground clutter here.
15:12 Slow development day. Not much to look at.
16:30 Visibly - cumulus and TCu are building outside. A few Cb's (weak-moderate) are out there. "Isolated popcorn" convection on radar. 1. SE, 103
° , R~124 km, Zhmax ~ 45 dBZ (largest multiple cells). 2. NE, 54° , R~84 km, 50 dBZ. 3. SE, 109° , R~29 km, 40-45 dBZ. Scattered weak cells N-E.16:45 Started flat plate. Cells within 40 km.
17:05 Started 7-tilt survey up to 8.5
° with RHI's centered on 90° .17:18 Many cells developing within 40 km to east. Other collection of cells 100 - 120 km to ESE. Not topping convection within 40 km with 8.5
° . 60 dBZ in RHI to East (88-89° ).17:26 Stopped loop survey, rhi. Started far polsec (up to 17.37
° ) centered on 95° (left AZ: 35° , right AZ.: 155° ). Trying to top cells within 30-40 km for flat plate to NE-SE.17:35-
17:38 Stuffed up transition to near polsec. Fixed center azimuth. Some garbage data in there (2 min).
17:38 Running near polsec (up to 37
° ) centered on 95° as before. RHI's centered on 90° . Trying to top for flat plate studies. 50° phase shift to east. Some heavy rain.17:53 Topping w/ near polsec. This complex is largely out of the DD lobe so not synching.
17:55 Rotated sector clockwise slightly (center 100
° ) to cover cells developing on south side.18:00 Shifted RHI's to 109
° center.18:01 Zhmax > 55 dBZ, Zdr > 3 dB,
Ñ F dp ~ 50° , nice convergent Vr signature in updraft.18:02 There is some development in DD lobe E. but cells 20-30 km to E-S are most vigorous within 100 km. Will stick with this can for now.
18:06 30 dBZ up to
» 14 km @ 108° AZ.18:10 Shifted RHI's to 119
° .18:15 30 dBZ consistently up to 14 km in these complexes. Very nice RHI's.
18:29 Shifted sector center back to 95
° . Shifted RHI to 59° to look at cells to NE.18:37 RHI's to AZ 56
° up to 75° in elevation angle taking a looking at cell that produced audible lightning.18:40 Stopped RHI's started 2-tilt 360
° to decide what to do.18:43 Stopped surveillance and started near polsec again centered on 95
° (35° - 155° ). RHI's centered on 44° . Stopped 1847.18:47:27 Trying vertical pointing scan looks good. Some is in the right range. Vertical point scan suggest no Zdr bias (0.0 dB).
18:50 Stopped vertical point and back to sector. Running near polsec. as before. Raining moderate to heavy at radar now. RHI's 44
° center.18:53 Shifted sector slightly to 92
° center for next sector. RHI's to 44° . tops to 17 km, R=25 km, 30 dBZ to 14 km.18:57 Still raining mod-hvy.
19:05 Contacted TOGA and asked them to run 135
° sector DD lobe starting at 1910.19:07 Stopped antenna. Run 2-tilt 360
° for a minute.19:10 Running meso dd east (135
° sector) synchronized with TOGA via cell phone. Hooray! First one. They're running sectors too. Gauge #1 and profiler site with precip.19:17 Topping most everything within 30 km.
19:19 Called TOGA. TOGA didn't get synchronized @ 1910. Should be synchronized @ 19:20. Citation is on the way! Test flight.
19:23 This dual-Doppler case is in a good spot. R=20-40 km and in the sweet spot (middle of lobe). New cells coming into lobe from east at R=60 km, AZ=65
° .19:30 Synched to within 5 sec. Topping nice with meso dd e near.
19:40 Synched within 10 sec. Meso dd east is catching complex to N-NNE @ R=40 km and a short piece of a disorganized broken line of convection (about 20 km of 80 km) which stretches south of eastern lobe.
19:50 Re-synched with TOGA. Meso dd e (NEAR). Cell at AZ 350
° , R=41 km reported to have 2 lightning flashes total.20:02 There are no less than 20 individual cells in DD e lobe within 70 km. Cells are up and down. Cells quickly dissipate and new one starts.
20:03 Radio contact with Citation!
20:07 Larger convective complex 120 km out.
20:10 Synched within 10 sec. Rain over rain gauge network #2. Must stay in DD scan for Citation.
20:15 Citation working stratiform remnants behind convective cells. Turbulence. Min. sized graupel. Approximate AZ. 355
° and R = 19 km.20:20 Resynched with TOGA.
20:24 Citation in decayed convection (338
° , R~43 km). Needles, aggregates, HVPS and CPI working with precip.20:29 Stopped antenna.
20:30 Started meso DD east (FAR) centered @ 32.5
° . RHI's centered @ 350° .20:36 TOGA having problems with timed sectors in their antenna controller. They're having to manually restart and sometimes missing synchronization by up to 1 minute.
20:40 Restart S-pol meso far dd e.
20:43 AZ: 350
° , R=54.8 km: Citation in and out of moderate rain.20:50 "synched" to tens within 10 sec.
20:54 Switched RHI's center to 358
° where Citation (R=62km) is flying low level pass through moderate isolated cell at low levels (40-50 dBZ). Citation covering 2 cells in racetrack: 1) mod 30-40 dBZ cell, 2) mod-intense shallow convection with Zhmax 55 dBZ and Zdrmax of 2.5 dB, with 40° + phase shift. Nice RHI's. Larger convective complex to ENE at R~90 km at outer edge of E DD lobe.21:09 Stopped antenna early to resynch. 21:10 Resynched.
21:13 Shifted RHI's to 320
° to spiral in convection there. (R~70km)21:17 Shifted 135
° sector to 10° center to keep track of Citation and system to east RHI's 320° center.21:20 Called TOGA and put them back in 360
° surv. volumes synchronized on the tens.21:25 Shifted RHI's to 314
° .21:30 Citation heading to airport.
21:34 Shifted sector back to 32.5
° for meso dd e far.21:36 Shifted RHI to 48
° to look at cells to NE. Mostly shallow and weak-mod. intensity.22:01 Running loop survey2. Having trouble with the real time display. Key board - top row of key do not work - Don is having a look. And there is a problem with the real time display color scale. At 22:36:17, AZ=311
° , Range=65.5, elevation=7.1° , the real time display shows unmistakably positive Zdr (Don confirms) while the Zebra display show 0 Zdr. EDITOR NOTE: This was never confirmed. Unclear "how positive" display was biased or if the exact same pixels were being displayed.22:46 Still running survey2.
23:13 Can display all variables (on real time display) now.
23:44 Running rain gauge scan loop airport. Mistake! Nothing there!
23:45 Running rain gauge scan #1,2,3: very, very light rain over #2 gauge network.
23:56 Back to survey2.
01:02 Nothing much out there - a couple of cell out at 110-130 km to the west, otherwise clear. Still running survey2.
01:25 Ran some PPI sector scans to NE - was editing 2-tilt 360
01:28 Running survey2, 10-tilt angles.
02:00 2-tilt 360
° survey. Nothing out there.03:28 *Very* clear.
04:20 Visual lightning, but no storms in range of radar; must be way out there.
06:38 Running Survey2 scan; some30-40 dBZ cells far off to SSW and SE and want to cover more of their vert. structure; no need for sectors.
09:00 Broad area of strat. precip. in W. lobe but significant blocking and low reflectivities make dual-Doppler likely not worth the trouble; may try it if reflectivities increase though.
09:09 Ah, what the hell. Stopped antenna.
09:10 Started meso far dd w (trmm6.scn). Synched at the 10 spot, RHI @ 242
° .09:14 Peak Zh in this strat. is maybe high 30's dBZ.
09:17 Topped just about everything outside 30 km; I t