13 July 2004 0000 Tropical squall to east 0030 There appears to be a strong SSW jet (ll) over GOC. Small T-squall moving closer and dissipating. Weak oceanic echoes from S now due west - seem to correspond to goes image (sharp discontinuity in cloud). Has 'surge' look to it but no precipitation. 0100 Strong echo over GOC (~50dBZ) ~180km SW. Also strong cluster 180km NNW (55dBZ). Small squall, now 30-50km ENE mostly dissipated but one sm,all core 57dBZ. Large swath of trailing startiform (15-20dBZ) to east. Slight regeneration of southern section of squall now split from system and heading north. 0230 Restart to climo-shallow. General dissipation but echoes NNE to ESE. 0240 at 4.7deg see brightband at 60km in dissipating stratiform. 0257 Dave Ahijevych taking over 0319 Running scans in NAME_micro.scn. The shallow scan is turning out at 7.5deg/sec. This may be fine for 960Hz but with 720Hz, the beam width is 1.04deg. This too wide - slowing down scan rate is necessary. Or switch to NAME_lowprf.scn file where 720Hz is assumed. 0325 Stopping and switching to NAME_lowprf.scn. Running climo-shaloow to see if cores are topped. This results in 0.82deg beam width. Good. 0331 Run a nit over to see the result of the 4.24deg scan. Some 40dBZ cores in storms 90km to NNW at this elevation. 0337 6.7 deg topping all echo >25dBZ 0355 JOSS site estimates NOAA wind profiler will be operational soon after 18Z today. 0405 Bow 120km to NNW moving NWward. 18m/s outbound velocity behind northern half. Tops at 6.7deg, 125km ~0.9 +14.6=15.5km AGL. 27dBZ max at 6.7deg elevation. 0417 Considered moving to climofar for greater elevation angle, but it's too far out to get much more benefit from elevation of polarimetry. 0430 Oceanic stratiform developed 120km out - very widespread in last 90min. 0440 120-150km SW some new isolated Cells. 14-15km high. 0453 Last 45mins, a very crisp boundary emerged from land to sea above SPOL. Separate from southern part of MCS gust-front. Behind it. Looks like outflow boundary. Part of wave train behind MCS gustfront? Very stable appearance. 0540 Submitting zebu:/scr/data/spol_images/2004mmdd/*.png to JOSS site via FTP. research .S-POL.3 200407ddhhmm.base-reflectivity.png 0607 Oceanic precip advecting inland over SPOL has some 40dBZ echo not being topped by 6.7deg el scan. They are ~30km due west of SPOL. This is just bright band echo. 0650 Oceanic precip filling in and deepening off coast. 90-120km range in NW quadrant. 0715 Switched to climofar to top nearby convection. 0751 Back to climo-shallow - high refl is mostly bright band. 0805 Old MCS gust front, while never convectively active on the western edge, looks like it's responsible for triggering quasi-linear line 90-120km out from 270-300deg 0820 There's a good cell 75km 270deg. 5.5 el doesn't quite top the core, but ny 0827 it did get above all 30dBZ echo. 0953 40dBZ bright band at 5,5deg, but that is it, no convective cores. 1200 SR is here and taking charge. "That's questionable" (SAR) 1205 - continue to climo-shallow in dissipating S/F precip to NE and E. 1350 was thinking about relerasing SPOL for Ka band work but decided against this for now. Numerous showers breaking out near Maz at this time. Widespread velocity indicates SE flow, maybe we are seeing pulses coming our way from TC to south near 20N. 1415 SHowers near Maz are downsizing now. 1500 Lower level flow is off-shore - where is the sea-breeze - will this offshore flow and cloudcover impede the sea-breeze today? 1505 Will release radar for Ka-band work for about 1 hour. Things are pretty quiet now. We will start to be back up by 1600UTC 1551 Expect NOAA profiler site to be operational by midday today. 1604 back up in shallow surveillance to see what's out there. 1610 Still seeing offshore flow, low-level easterlies. There is a SE wind max at 1.5km MSL Looks like lots of 2nd trp echo off toSE in association with strong spiral band from TC now passing over/near Cabo. Offshore flow may be due to passing TC. 1630 Diagnosing problem with scanning. Elevation appears to be increasing after 180deg azimuth in Climo-shallow. We has this problem yesterday too - top off was the fact we were seeing 180deg sectors on Zebra. CLimofar appears to work fine. Don F. set a new azimuth for the rampup azimuth and seems to be working now. Need to keep a watch on this. Was climoshallow changed from a 3-tilt PPI to this more complicated scan? 1644 Showers off to the northeast about 120-150km. 1706 CLimo-shallow is running OK. Not much going on at present. @nd trp off toSW in association with outer band on TC. 1725 Very little echo - SE flow continues. No sea-breeze. No mountain convection. 1743 No change. Is the TC to the south suppressing things today? second trip echo along 240deg radial. 1943 Continue to be suppressed - some development over NE sector but we're still able to top with climo-shallow. Max dBZs less than 35. low-level winds out of SE today. 2015 went to climofar to catch echos topping shallow mode. 2051 Spiral arm of tropical depression visible over ocean to south, as band of weak echo popcorn convection continues over mountains. 2115 First 50+dBZ echoes on display ~120km north over coastal plain. These echoes appeared to pop up in situ, not advected from SMO. Gustfront interactivity with S/B? Tops ~12.7km 2140 Echoes N (distant ~100km) now tops to ~!3.5km 54dBZ. Time loop shows tendency for more organisation (echo coverage) in this area over the last hour. 2149 From 1721 on 12 July to 0325 on 13 July the radar ran 7-8deg/sec despite low PRF; Az space >1deg in this case. 2159 Echo coverage to the north consolidating into rough NW-SE line ~100km distant. Also some increasing activity to E-NE (~120km NE) Zdrs ranging up to ~2.2dB in most intense cores. 2242 New growth at 38km, 73deg; topped at 14deg for now. New NAME_micro names: Far -> Far 960 Shallow -> Shllw 960 ClimoFar -> Far 960Hz ClimoShallow -> Shllw 960Hz 2257 Not topped at 14deg 2300 Switched to climonear 2315 Cell 80-100km N intensify to max dBZs ~56dBZ core 2.8dB Zdr. Visibility much reduced since we drove in at 19UTC