This flight had 3 wave events and another interesting isentrope "structure."

Figure 1.  Flight track.

Figure 2.   CTC, with IAC having 40 K isnetrope spacing.

Figure 3.  IAC for entire flight.  All isentropes are 7 K apart, starting with 380 K at the bottom (i.e., 15.5 km at 30 ks) .  There are 3 isentrope "structures" are at 32.1 ks, 37.5 ks and 44.6 ks.

Figure 4.  IAC for 1st event.  Isentropes are 7 K apart.  At 32.2 ks there's a 320 meter wave structure lasting 1 ks.  This event occurs while flying over the Sweden/Norway border, near the mountain ridge line, and is probably orographically-generated.

Figure 5.  IAC for 2nd event.  Isentropes are 7 K apart.  At 37.5 ks there's a 300 meter wave structure lasting 1.7 ks.  The event occurs over the ocean, halfway between England and Norway.

Figure 5.  IAC for 3rd event.  At 44.6 ks there's a 380 meter wave structure lasting 0.7 ks.  This event occurs just off the coast of Norway, and could be orographically-generated..

Figure 6.  T(z) comparison for the MTP/DC8 and MTP/ER2 instruments, while flying over same location (northern Norway).  This illustrates the point that each instrument has a limited altitude region over which its temperature profiles are valid.  MTP/DC8 profiles are valid (RMS<2.0 K) throughout the region 6 to 17 km, and the MTP/ER2 profiles are valid throughout the region 16 to 23 km (while flying at 19.5 km).

Figure 7.  T(z) comparison for the MTP/DC8 and MTP/ER2 instruments, while flying over same location (northern Norway), and edited so that only data that is expected to be valid is displayed.  The only region of overlap is from 16 to 17 km, where, in fact, there is good agreement between the two MTP profiles.

Figure 8.  TSame as above, except that 6 radiosondes from the area have been overlain.  The RAOB sites surround the region of interest, and they soundings straddle the flgiht times.

Figure 8 is "confirmatory" for MTP/ER2, but it calls into question the MTP/DC8 profile near and above flight level.  Perhaps the MTP/DC8 window correction table needs to be checked for the SOLVE deployment.  Another puzzling discrepancy is the DC-8's OAT, which is 4.5 K colder than all the RAOBs.
 

Other Links

See the DC-8 counterpart to this page, for the SAME flight date, DC2000.03.11.

Return to list of other MTP/ER2 SOLVE Flights (link internal to this web site, maintained by Bruce L. Gary)

Go to MTP/ER2 SOLVE web page at JPL (link external to this web site, maintained by M.J. Mahoney)

This site opened:  April 10, 2000.  Last Update: March 12, 2003