Photo (left):University of Flinders' Cessna 404 about to fly between the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory's tropical atmospheric ocean buoy and the Ron Brown just after completing an up-down profile to 3 km altitude near the ship. Buoy and ship are about 200 m apart. This image was captured from the ship's RHIB (small boat), deployed for the occasion. Other snapshots from the Ron Brown

Commentary:

The Cessna 404 overflew us once today, including an up-down profile to an altitude of 3 km. The ship's small boat was deployed with three photographers/videographers to capture the fly-by (see photo). Volker Wulfmeyer walked into the science lab looking like a drowned rat, after covering the High-Resolution Doppler Lidar's scanner in the midst of a morning shower. Dolphins continue to play around the buoy.

Visual Observations:

We awoke to stormy skies. One line of storms passed our location at 0530, another at 0900 (both local time). Conditions gradually improved throughout the day, but with much more cloudiness than previously experienced here, including a lot of cirrus. The wind is higher as well.

Instrument Status:

All is well except for a dead Depolarization Aerosol and Backscatter Unattended Lidar. Flashlamps on the Max Planck Institute's Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) continue to set a lifetime record with each passing hour - they are now 2 days past their expected 72-hour lifetime. Several good cases of simultaneous vertically-pointing water vapor DIAL and Doppler lidar were acquired, beneath both precipitating and non-precipitating clouds.

Previous Days' Updates:

June 27, 1999
June 26, 1999
June 25, 1999
June 24, 1999
June 23, 1999
June 22, 1999
June 21, 1999
June 20, 1999
June 19, 1999
June 18, 1999
June 17, 1999
June 16, 1999
June 15, 1999
June 14, 1999
June 10, 1999

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