17 August 2004

0000	The NE nearby echoes are some of the best-looking ones out there at this time.  Visually, the cloud is not too shabby either.  The SE MCS continues to approach S-Pol, although it has lost much of its original linear organization.

0031	Nice little gust front coming out of NE convection.

0119	SE MCS still moving toward S-Pol, leading edge ~80 km out.

0130	ClimoFar as NE cells dissipating.  Would have switched 15 minutes ago but Jonathan the tech wanted to show me a snake he killed.

0230	Running PPIs as part of a test sequence, similar to MicroFar135 but at 720 Hz and with a 120 deg sector (center is 90 deg).  Focus is on the MCS to the SE, which sprawls off scope too much to scan well at 960 Hz.  RHIs on NW-SE line of cells near 135 deg.  PPIs will miss the only other game in town, a distant storm over the sea due south and near the edge of the scope.  Angles are designed to top 15 km AGL at 60 km range, w/ 1.1 km vert res.

0239	MCS is basically LLTS form, sprawling from about 60 km from the radar to the edge of the scope.

0245	Last PPI didn't top completely a cell at 75 deg, 60 km.  Buffing up to top 16 km AGL w/ 1.2 km vert res.  RHIs to this cell, adding two more swps.  Last sequence terminated almost a minute early, so there is room to play here.

0300	Sectors are really working out well - geometry of system is making scanning it pretty straightforward.  A very nice looking MCS right now.  Dropping 2 RHI swps and adding an extra PPI swp for improved vert res.

0310	Movie loops reveal SE portion of line moving out to sea.

0323	Next set of sectors will go up higher with coarser resolution to top new growth up to 45 km from radar.

0330	Last sector still did not top closest convection so we are breaking out the nuclear option - top 16 km AGL at 30 km range.  Nice phase shifts thru SE line due to alignment along radial.  RHIs to cell near 108 deg that I have had a hard time topping.

0337	Success with topping the PITA cell.  Throttling back aggressiveness of elevation steps and upper angle on next seq to get a little better vert res.  One big sacrifice with this MCS scanning is I am missing the far southern oceanic convection, which has persisted until now.

0345	Did not synch properly so did a manual restart ~30 sec late.  Dropping top elevation angle on PPIs, which was unnecessary, to ensure good sync.

0400	James Done arrives

0405	Staying with Timothy's 'test' scan sector at 720PRF for the time being. RHIs at 150 and 152 degrees through the leading convective cells. The leading line convection close to the radar is being topped at 19.2 degrees. Oceanic convection to the south is really being missed because it's outside the sector. I'm keeping with the main event for the time being.

0415 	The oceanic convection appears to be developing its own leading convective line which we're missing with the sector scan. The main leading-line system is getting to be larger than the 120degree sector. I've decided to switch to climonear or climofar at 0430 to scan the entire main system and the developing oceanic system. RHIs remain at 150 and 152 degrees through the leading line.

0430	Switched the climofar to capture all events. Climofar was chosen rather than climonear to keep the vertical resolution at the far side of the system without loosing too much of the tops of the near side of the system. The close cells are 25km from the radar. The main system has sent out a few cold pools over the ocean, and one has triggered another line of cells ahead of the original line. One of the cold pools is heading over SPOL about now. Windy outside (15-20mph gusts), temp 82f Td 77f. 5 minutes later the Td had dropped to 72f.

0445	Switched to climonear to top the numerous cells now surrounding SPOL. Rain shafts visible when lightning strikes.

0500	Switched back to climofar since the close cells were weak compared to the main leading line.

0515	Stopped the climofar at 0516 30 sec and switched to climonear because the cells near SPOL were becoming more intense. Will resynch on time for the 0530 scan. Cells getting close to the profiler so may do a profiler scan soon.

0530	Started scan 20 seconds after 0530 due to personal dithering.

0545	Despite the previous scan finishing on time the new scan didn't start automatically so manually started it at 0545 and 37 seconds.

0600	Started this sequence 15 minutes late. New isolated cells firing in the 330-30 degree sector within 120km of the radar. The line and the stratiform components of the main leading line MCS appear to have separated as the line continues to propgate out over the ocean.

0715	Switched to climofar as the cells moved away from SPOL. The broken line of convection (~200km long) continues to propagate west over the ocean. New development continually extends the line northwards (and back over land). Elsewhere, a small cluster has developed in the 0-30 degree sector, centered ~70km from SPOL.

0745	Line convection decaying apart from the northern end which remains active. Extensive stratiform region remains.

0830	A new isolated cell has popped up 35km from the radar at ~10degrees azimuth.

1030	Switched to climoshallow. The only echoes left on the scope are associated with a system containing a couple of convective cores skirting the northern edge of the radar scope. These echoes are beyond 140km from the radar.

1201	Brenda Dolan here now. A little bit of the stratiform region is left over of the storm to the North of the radar. Still in ClimoShallow.

1242	System to the north is looking more convective, so I will switch to ClimoFar at 1245.

1305	The cell at 300deg azimuth at around 100-120km is intensifying. It has a core of 45dBz at the moment, and extents to about 14km MSL.

1314	The cell is moving South, so I might consider microphysical since there is nothing else out there at the moment. I might have to wait for it to move completely into the 120km range in order to capture the entire cell in microphysical mode.

1401	Switched to microfar 90 to look at the cell WNW of Spol at 100km. Still pretty far out there, but it's about the only thing out there right now so why not? The sector scan is centered on 330 for the moment. Looks like reflectivities are approaching 55dBz at 1.98deg.  There is a large area of anvil blowoff.

1432	The scan sequence ran over, so I had to start it 2 minutes late.  Will try to resynch at the next opportunity.

1446	Rotated the sector over to 280deg.  Scan sequence will probably run long again. The storm has been moving pretty much due south and is now east of S-Pol at a range of ~70km.  Reflectivities are mid 50's. Might be evidence of a ZDR column.

1521	Storm is decaying, but there is new intensification just north of the original cell.  Still a large cirrus shield. Still in MicroFar90 centered on 280deg.

1536	System has pretty much died, but for now we will remain in microphysical mode incase things reintensify.  Will reevaluate in about 30 minutes.

1600	I dont' know what's up with this scan mode, but it seems to continually run long.  So, I've had to cut off the top few elevation angles and restart it on the 15 minutes to be sure it runs. Probably switch back to ClimoFar when this sequence finishes, since there is really nothing but the weak reminants of the earlier system to the east.

1616	Switching to low PRF, ClimoFar. Missed the 15 minute mark...so will make sure to resynch at the next opportunity. Nothing out there really, just the leftover anvil.

1630	Had to cut off the 0deg angle to resynch. Should be back on schedule now.

1727	Seeing hints of convection starting in the mountains, as usual.  Will remain in ClimoFar for the time being.

1747	'Popcorn' convection starting to appear over the mountains.

1815	They want to bring the radar down for about 30min-1hr, but I'm hesitant because the afternoon convection is already starting to fire off.  Maybe tomorrow moring between 9-11 would be the best--that seems to be the most general dead time.

1900	Pretty much 30deg-120deg is starting to show some echo.  Will make sure we are topping things.  Some cells at ~150km have 50+dBz cores to the NE and ENE.

1949	Volume near 1853 UTC has some funky spokes in the noise for some godforsaken reason.

2000	Lang on station.  Normal mtn convection continues.  Looks like one cell might be popping up to our NW along the sea brz front.

2045	ClimoNear to top nearby cells.

2109	Not seeing as much sea brz convection today.  There are some small cells over the profiler area, but too small to trust that the profiler's actually being hit.

2131	NW convection continues to pick up, but no profiler hit yet.  Sea brz front is to its east.

2158	Top angle of ClimoNear failing to top one cell near 30 deg, but the cell in question is less than 30 km from the radar.

2231	Whoa - We were still up at 26.4 deg when 2230 rolled around - did a manual restart, 1 min late.  NW sea brz conv looking pretty good, but still east of the profiler.  Mtn convection continues with some increasing organization.  So far, today looks like another good day for active convection.

2245	Manual restart of ClimoNear to ensure resynch, cut off 0-deg scan.  Overall, the sequence seemed to be running fine this time.  Not sure what happened before.  Couple of nice linked lines of cells in the mtns.  Things are definitely coalescing and organizing this afternoon.  Looks like another MCS later this shift.

2355	Mass of convection moving out to sea now.  May get a solid profiler hit soon