tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40078977625066172082024-03-05T14:27:19.927-07:00Phil's Adventures with Lake-Effect SnowstormsA Graduate Student's Perspective on Field Research in the Atmospheric SciencesPBerghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384584399584441257noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4007897762506617208.post-25224327998634469102014-01-31T20:23:00.000-07:002014-01-31T21:26:09.921-07:00The End Has Come, But This Is Not The End<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCTfdfAZKzvHUBzaKla3Xk8BDMivMUI_b2A6d7wGXmdmjUc0SWk3sfCA9CnGhGX8d7LoN9XvrYDHLNA-QFEmrBwYCDAOEsSpgYvRV7BSFq75AMbMnMqgfSjEupWtscntyki5bhIFs8p0M/s1600/tughill_2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCTfdfAZKzvHUBzaKla3Xk8BDMivMUI_b2A6d7wGXmdmjUc0SWk3sfCA9CnGhGX8d7LoN9XvrYDHLNA-QFEmrBwYCDAOEsSpgYvRV7BSFq75AMbMnMqgfSjEupWtscntyki5bhIFs8p0M/s1600/tughill_2.jpeg" height="640" width="506" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Me Wednesday afternoon up on the Tug Hill after digging out one of our instruments. The snow was 4 ft deep here with 6 inches of ice underneath.<br />
(Photo courtesy Peter Veals)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Well, OWLeS is officially over as of this past Wednesday. Most of us have packed up and returned home following a grueling 6 weeks of field research. But I can say without a shadow of a doubt that it was worth it, and the data that were collected during the project are going to be analyzed for years to come by dozens of researchers and grad students. OWLeS was extremely successful in so many ways! The data were great, the snow storms were borderline epic at times, and just about every scientist involved got the kind of data he/she was looking for.
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">All in all, we studied 24 lake-effect events in 43 days. Two of these events dumped 5+ feet of snow at some locations in just a few days. The King Air flew 21 flights, 7 of which I was on. More than 100 people participated from 8 universities, two National Weather Service offices, and one research center, including 15 main scientists and about 50 undergraduates. At least 75 different weather sensors and instruments were used, including 8 radars, 200 or more weather balloons were launched, thousands of snowflake photographs were taken, and countless snow measurements were made. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ultimately, it was a great project. As my advisor said, "fewer than 1 in 10 winters are this good for lake-effect systems". We picked the right year to do this study, and it certainly paid off. Here are a few other interesting quotes from some of the OWLeS scientists:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I will say this has been, by far, the most </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">challenging field campaign that I have been involved with."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine we'd have a field season as active as this!"</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"...what can only be described as an epic period of field data collection..."</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I hope you have enjoyed following this blog as much as I have enjoyed updating it. I hope you've learned a bit about the King Air. I hope you've learned something about how scientific field projects are done. Perhaps most importantly, I hope you've gained a new appreciation for how fascinating science and, in this case lake-effect snow, can be. Otherwise, this is probably my last post in this blog. Thanks for following, and stay curious my friends!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">P.S. </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">If you are a Wyoming middle or high schooler who found this blog through the Science Posse, you might just see me at your school sometime this spring with the Posse if we come visit!</span></span></div>
PBerghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384584399584441257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4007897762506617208.post-87660294593880856162014-01-13T22:02:00.000-07:002014-01-13T22:26:33.421-07:00More on the UW King Air<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Sorry for the long delay between posts. It has been somewhat of a busy week for me and I've had a number of other "chores" to work on. Much has happened with OWLeS since I last posted. We had 5 research flights in 4 days into lake-effect storms last week alone, as many as we had all of December! There were even 2 flights in one day, during one of which I got the privilege of flying in the 2nd seat. That meant that I got to tell the pilot where and how high to fly. So needless to say, myself and everyone else here have been tired and exhausted - getting up at 4 AM several times during the week was not on my original list of "things to do" before I came to NY, but we make the best of it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Today (Monday) was a down day, meaning we were not collecting any data...which makes sense given that there are no lake-effect storms going on at the moment in our area. For me, down days like this are usually spent getting other stuff done. This past week, I've been working on editing a paper that we are trying to get published in one of the atmospheric science journals. I've also been plotting data from each of our flights and putting them online so other people associated with OWLeS can see them. I'm also in one class this spring, which started today, so eventually I will have homework and readings to do for that. On top of all this, I still have my own master's degree research to finish up - I haven't been able to work on any of that since November!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But instead of doing lots of work today, I helped give King Air tours to the undergraduate students from some of the other colleges involved in OWLeS - <a href="http://www.millersville.edu/esci/meteorology/">Millersville University</a>, <a href="http://www.oswego.edu/academics/colleges_and_departments/departments/earth_sciences/degree_programs/meteorology.html">SUNY-Oswego</a>, and <a href="http://www.hws.edu/academics/geoscience/">Hobart and William Smith</a>. These tours were more in-depth than the <a href="http://scienceposse-bergmaier.blogspot.com/2013/12/settling-in.html">open house</a> that we had back in December. I decided it was a good time to snap a number of photos of the airplane that I've been meaning to get - ones showing more of the instruments so that I can tell you a little bit about what each instrument does.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Instruments of the left wing of the King Air</span></td></tr>
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<u><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>A - FSSP precipitation probe</b></span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Measures certain sizes of precipitation particles that pass through a laser</span><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>B - Turbulence probe</b></span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">By measuring fluctuations in wind speed (and thus air pressure) at a hole on the front of the tube, we can figure out the air turbulence</span><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>C - Rosemount temperature probe</b></span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Air flows into an opening at the front and is constricted at the back. This constriction forces some of the air up into a chamber where a temperature sensor is located. Ideally, water droplets will be too heavy to be drawn up into this chamber. If water were to collect on the temperature sensor, it would cause errors in the measurements when it evaporates </span><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>D - 2DP precipitation probe</b></span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Another instrument which measures sizes of precipitation particles by examining the shadow that particles make when they pass through a laser</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Instruments on the front of the King Air</span></td></tr>
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<u><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>E - Gust probe (wind instrument)</b></span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Measures the air pressure at four small holes on the front of the instrument tube. Two holes are oriented horizontally and two vertically. Differences in air pressure between the two horizontal holes gives us the horizontal (east-west-north-south) wind while differences between the two vertical holes gives us the vertical (up-down) wind</span><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>F - CDP cloud particle probe</b></span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Yet another instrument that measures the sizes of precipitation and cloud particles, once again using a laser</span><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>G - Liquid water probe</b></span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Instrument which uses a laser to estimate the amount of liquid water in a cloud. It can also measure the sizes of water droplets</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg678GVFhyaW_L1E7pmtgNrTOGYY8JuXLT_-01rHtDamfqI6apMOX6lIugrFhub3Q68vToin6L_UkrO79R6O0vSRa56s6WspXyPZhp_DFbjpP2S1qi7Hm62xJz72QpHQR9DUag8InINTEg/s1600/IMG_1864.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="446" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg678GVFhyaW_L1E7pmtgNrTOGYY8JuXLT_-01rHtDamfqI6apMOX6lIugrFhub3Q68vToin6L_UkrO79R6O0vSRa56s6WspXyPZhp_DFbjpP2S1qi7Hm62xJz72QpHQR9DUag8InINTEg/s640/IMG_1864.JPG" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">CDP probe</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Liquid water probe</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-iXmtAbf6B7IFMYZH7gXZWdpctK8mjA-uacLo_QHtHcpZK7iA-3jN5Zt1UAxrj4GhVHyja8p0u5L3K3rRP7NegmvFWOq9WQuiISYVQLXvj4EQErbZG0iQLs_zmw1B3nzm6w4oCe26Ffg/s1600/right_wing+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-iXmtAbf6B7IFMYZH7gXZWdpctK8mjA-uacLo_QHtHcpZK7iA-3jN5Zt1UAxrj4GhVHyja8p0u5L3K3rRP7NegmvFWOq9WQuiISYVQLXvj4EQErbZG0iQLs_zmw1B3nzm6w4oCe26Ffg/s640/right_wing+.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Right wing of the King Air </span></td></tr>
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<u><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>H - CIP particle imaging probe</b></span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">One final instrument which measures the sizes of cloud particles passing through a laser</span><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>I - LWC100 liquid water probe</b></span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">An instrument which directly determines the amount of liquid water in clouds by measuring how much water hits a metal rod and evaporates. This rod is heated to a constant temperature, but as water hits the rod and evaporates (cooling the rod), more electricity has to be given to the rod to keep it at that temperature. By knowing exactly how much electricity is needed, we can figure out how much liquid water is hitting the rod in the first place</span><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>J - Reverse flow temperature probe</b></span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This instrument has four metal tubes that extend outward and are cut at 45° angle at their ends. These tubes are connected to a larger central chamber which houses a temperature sensor and has an opening at the back. As air flows past the tubes, these angled ends create an area of negative pressure right behind the tubes. Because air flows from high to low pressure, the negative (low) pressures suck the air out from inside the chamber through the tubes, which causes air to flow into the larger chamber from the opening in the back (i.e. reverse flow). This is the air that is measured by the temperature sensor. Meanwhile, any water droplets are (hopefully) too heavy to get sucked in the back and eventually get blown off the probe</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There are a few other instruments on the airplane, including two that measure air pressure and dewpoint temperature, that I don't have photos for. But below are a couple pictures of our radar, lidar, and the windows that they pass through when the airplane is in the air.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">View of the radar and lidar from right outside airplane door</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Radar and lidar windows as viewed from the backside of the airplane</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Now you all know a lot more about the King Air than I knew just 6 months ago!</span><br />
PBerghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384584399584441257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4007897762506617208.post-69606066353741536132013-12-30T17:53:00.001-07:002014-01-09T02:49:24.226-07:00The University of Wyoming King Air<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSbrsPfZ3J06GOgFLVkA2PABh1EyvSSkO46EUQGXuQ-3e0OpdwMBE0msZ_EaVUNISB-VDnIhBBJbGSi93xnqnUl0KaKjXycUWvW33phzepHK0CNR1ZiCbz9LkeGN0WbsbHV46XSyjqsEI/s1600/IMG_7896.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSbrsPfZ3J06GOgFLVkA2PABh1EyvSSkO46EUQGXuQ-3e0OpdwMBE0msZ_EaVUNISB-VDnIhBBJbGSi93xnqnUl0KaKjXycUWvW33phzepHK0CNR1ZiCbz9LkeGN0WbsbHV46XSyjqsEI/s640/IMG_7896.JPG" height="298" width="640" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />As promised, here is just a little bit about the airplane I've been flying in during the OWLeS project!<br /><br />I've mentioned in previous posts that many different types of research tools and instruments are being used in OWLeS to make measurements of the atmosphere while lake-effect snow storms are taking place. The main contribution from the University of Wyoming is our own research aircraft, the<a href="http://flights.uwyo.edu/n2uw/" target="_blank"> King Air</a>. This means that the majority of the work I am doing during the project is related to the aircraft, which includes flying on it during IOPs! <br /><br /><u><b>The Aircraft Itself </b></u><br />The King Air is a small twin-engine airplane outfitted with various meteorological instrumentation and has been used in many research projects over the last 36 years. It has been all over the United States, down to the Caribbean, to Finland, and most recently to England, just to name a few locations. Most of the instruments or sensors on the airplane make fairly common
measurements, like temperature, air pressure, wind speed/direction, and
humidity. There are other less-common sensors that measure the size of
cloud droplets and the amount of liquid water in the air. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />One of the most valuable instruments on the plane is the Wyoming Cloud Radar, or the WCR. The WCR, like any weather radar, sends out a beam of radiation into the atmosphere at very small intervals (i.e. many times per second) to show where the precipitation is located and how intense it is. The WCR is actually able to send out 3 beams at once; a beam that points straight down, another that points downward but slightly toward the front of the plane, and a third that points straight up. So we can actually fly through a cloud and see what the precipitation pattern looks like, both below the plane and above. We can also use the measurements from the WCR to figure out how fast the air is moving upward or downward. Another important instrument on the King Air is the Wyoming Cloud Lidar, or WCL. It works similarly to the WCR, but instead only points straight down and measures cloud particles (i.e. water droplets or ice crystals) much smaller than precipitation. <br /><br /><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">During an OWLeS
research flight, the King Air will typically fly "leg" patterns into and
out of lake-effect snow bands. This is best illustrated by the photo
below, but essentially all the plane is doing is flying a bunch of
brief, straight paths ("legs") through the snow band, back-and-forth
almost in a zig zag manner. Some of these legs are flown at different
heights above the ground...for instance, some are flown above the cloud,
some inside the cloud, and some below the cloud. We can usually do
about 11 or 12 legs before we run low on fuel and have to go back to the
airport. This keeps each flight to about 3 1/2 hours long.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnnbPWD3msxTrZPlijZh1dsYAQ4IfSZeUQrxY30hYJ6f0b2MsFRSVESt0C_9cCPgsjEjgauuzq6hq5_ZsPvsLiiZgSUTktgsAQfJ8hficyToIsfgnQUAnvy_r4wtVPo14gO5H6YBVc70w/s1600/UWKA_flight_track.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnnbPWD3msxTrZPlijZh1dsYAQ4IfSZeUQrxY30hYJ6f0b2MsFRSVESt0C_9cCPgsjEjgauuzq6hq5_ZsPvsLiiZgSUTktgsAQfJ8hficyToIsfgnQUAnvy_r4wtVPo14gO5H6YBVc70w/s640/UWKA_flight_track.jpg" height="362" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">King Air "lawnmower" or "ladder" flight pattern. The north-south legs are intended to transect a lake-effect snow band. Courtesy of the UCAR/EOL OWLeS online catalog. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The plane is also a national research "facility", meaning that any
researcher in the United States can request to use the plane for
research if they can get money for it. So why would a researcher be interested in using the King Air? <br /><br />Well,
an airplane obviously flies in the air, several thousand feet above the
ground. It is very difficult to get meteorological measurements that
high in the air using other instruments. The King Air can also fly to
the storms, instead of waiting for the storms to come to it. </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Most of us are
used to seeing radars from our local television meteorologist, but the
radars shown on TV only let us look at storms horizontally. </span>The WCR and WCL, because they point up and down, can help us see what a storm looks like <i>vertically</i>.
This type of data can be very important for researchers because it
often helps them understand what is going on inside clouds or storms. </span>These are just a few reasons why the King Air is considered a very important research tool in OWLeS. <br /><br /><b><u>The Crew</u></b><br />Only 4 people can fly on the King Air at once, and all of them are considered crew members. This means that no one can fly on the airplane simply as a passenger. Each person is r<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">equired to fulfill
some type of flight mission "duty". </span>
</span><br />
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1st seat (front left seat) - pilot</span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2nd seat (front right seat) - mission/research
scientist </span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3rd seat (back right seat) - flight
scientist </span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">4th seat (back left seat) - research/flight
assistant</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1OrMoxMBtOmU3cLo_G8eBQk7rr5mKER7BNHBDUHttiAisBb3nODJ-6yyeZkjopRTty2a_t-nGRBKYXTk0_3QAi_xJ-jcHdjEGS5_2_UqJLwXaGBAFwy8IxH09fh0mdSW3r3JIRgBMDCM/s1600/UWKA_crew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1OrMoxMBtOmU3cLo_G8eBQk7rr5mKER7BNHBDUHttiAisBb3nODJ-6yyeZkjopRTty2a_t-nGRBKYXTk0_3QAi_xJ-jcHdjEGS5_2_UqJLwXaGBAFwy8IxH09fh0mdSW3r3JIRgBMDCM/s640/UWKA_crew.jpg" height="425" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">View from the 4th seat on the King Air</span></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I don't need to
explain what the pilot does. The mission/research scientist is responsible for making
the scientific decisions during the flight as well as making decisions
regarding changes in aircraft altitude or direction of travel. This person is
usually a scientist, often one of the principle investigators on a project
(i.e. professor/researcher). The flight scientist </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">handles all of the weather sensors and instruments and
makes sure they are all turned on and running smoothly. He is usually also very knowledgeable about the science side of things and typically helps the mission/research scientist make decisions. </span></span><br />
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGLoe_dNeUN9aBF5J5Ay1yVVYsI6W803fNTtXdnxmB6moFd3Z3lALczgfpdjxUVCF62k7FuGZP-VHCG51-1__OzXwhDo2YiKap2ydfs_YYG7F-OiM9U5xBGOONwPto-PlXfpZhgjR1jys/s1600/IMG_7901.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGLoe_dNeUN9aBF5J5Ay1yVVYsI6W803fNTtXdnxmB6moFd3Z3lALczgfpdjxUVCF62k7FuGZP-VHCG51-1__OzXwhDo2YiKap2ydfs_YYG7F-OiM9U5xBGOONwPto-PlXfpZhgjR1jys/s640/IMG_7901.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">View from the 2nd seat on the plane</span></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Finally, there is the 4th seat in the plane, which is where I always sit! The person in the 4th seat is responsible for helping the flight scientist by monitoring some of the instruments (usually the WCL) and keeping in contact with other scientists on the ground using a chatroom. The 4th seat is occasionally unclaimed for some flights, allowing other students the chance to experience what it's like to fly on a research mission. </span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /><br />I feel like I've been very fortunate to have the opportunity to be involved with the King Air during OWLeS. While I miss all the snow falling on the ground below, it is pretty cool to say that I was flying through it while it was happening. OWLeS is about to resume operations later this week, so hopefully the second half of the project will be as much fun as the first. Keep checking in for updates!</span></span></div>
PBerghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384584399584441257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4007897762506617208.post-61098718164497883242013-12-20T18:48:00.000-07:002013-12-20T18:48:03.867-07:00The End of Phase One<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This post will be fairly brief. OWLeS Phase One (December 4-21) has officially ended, a few days early in fact. All 100+ people working on the project are now on Christmas break until January 2. After that, we will return to upstate New York for 3 1/2 weeks for Phase Two to resume data collection until January 29. <br /><br />Phase One went extremely well for the most part. There were 5 total IOPs (Intensive Operating Periods) and 6 cases in total. It appears as if the instruments from the various groups were working the vast majority of the time, allowing us to collect great datasets for each of the IOPs. I've been looking at a lot of the data from the King Air, including the radar data, and it looks very promising for research. <br /><br />Snow-wise, from December 7-18 a total of 99 inches of lake-effect snow fell at the OWLeS site in North Redfield, as measured by the Utah group. About 40% of this snow fell in one day! We've enjoyed all the snow, but now we are ready for a break and I'm certainly looking forward to going back to my hometown in Pennsylvania to see family and relax a bit. <br /><br />I will try to post once or twice over break - one of these will be all about the King Air! So keep checking in. Also, if there are any big lake-effect events while we're gone, I'll post an update about that as well. Otherwise, I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!</span>PBerghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384584399584441257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4007897762506617208.post-73014522808153870122013-12-16T21:59:00.001-07:002013-12-19T20:28:33.214-07:00The Research Flight That Was Meant to Happen<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We had an incredibly interesting day/evening yesterday, but before I get into the details, I wanted to start by mentioning that I traveled up to North Redfield, NY today (on the Tug Hill plateau east of Lake Ontario) to RAISE one of our instruments about 3 feet higher in order to keep it out of the snow. The instrument was already ~5 feet above the ground and the snow was about a foot or so below it. This is at one of our ground sites, which I've talked about in previous posts, that is run by folks from the University of Utah and has received a total of 80 inches of snow in the last 7 day with more to come this week. Here's one photo I took today - the rest can be found at the very bottom of this post!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh4dqSPDlr8Rjic74C1VOrVQReBGMt8206n1hI5_uCqOq7i06qweR6w1q8GyCNDoZQUcPJzxeQFsogX0ECZHidQifyxL2gPf8cbqVmGMsnsYal_lD5qWq_CJ8iKxqfi9XcR6DmxQx13ec/s1600/1216131345.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh4dqSPDlr8Rjic74C1VOrVQReBGMt8206n1hI5_uCqOq7i06qweR6w1q8GyCNDoZQUcPJzxeQFsogX0ECZHidQifyxL2gPf8cbqVmGMsnsYal_lD5qWq_CJ8iKxqfi9XcR6DmxQx13ec/s640/1216131345.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Snow 4-5 feet deep at the OWLeS ground site in North Redfield, NY</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><u>The Flight That Almost Wasn't</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So I think I should tell this like a story, in chronological order. This may be a bit lengthy, and I apologize, but looking back I'm quite amazed at how everything went last night and how it just all worked out so perfectly in the end. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this and aren't dozing off 5 minutes from now haha.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><i>Flight Plan</i></b> - At the OWLeS 1 pm weather briefing yesterday (Sunday), it appeared as if a relatively weak long-fetch single band was going to develop sometime around sunset but die off during the overnight hours. We weren't expecting anything spectacular for sure, with some of us perhaps even thinking that it wasn't worth it to even fly the King Air. Ultimately, we decided we would have a 5:30 pm takeoff, fly for 3.5 hours collecting data over the weak band, and call it a night.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><i>Pre-flight</i></b> - My advisor and I arrived at the local airport by 2:30 pm, expecting to go through the typical pre-flight routine. It was quite windy outside at this time, and fairly cold. The other crew members had already arrived and immediately informed us that while the plane was sitting outside being fueled, blowing snow from the hangar roof had collected on the wings of the King Air and had begun to melt. This is a big no-no, as any melted snow on the wings would freeze after take off and cause issues with flying. In the words of our aircraft scientist Jeff, "We might not be able to fly today, guys...". And this was ~3 hours before our scheduled take-off. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">They moved the King Air back inside the hangar, brushed off the snow, and dried the plane off - all while keeping the hangar as cold as possible so that the temperature of the metal surface of the plane would be cold enough as to not melt any snow that fell on it. However, we were still concerned because the plane must be taken back outside about an hour before take-off in order to turn on some of the instruments, like the radar. If snow was still blowing off the roof, the plane would have to be brought back inside and dried off AGAIN - and that would have essentially ended our chances of flying. We can't fly past 10 pm, so for a 3.5 hour flight we need to be in the air by 6:30 pm at the latest.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><i>Boarding and take-off</i></b> - Well, we pushed the plane back outside about an hour before take-off, and lo and behold the wind had died down significantly! No blowing snow anymore. Hallelujah! It looked like we'd be flying afterall. So around 5:15 pm we all loaded onto the plane to get ready for the flight. A very light snow had begun to fall, but it was nothing to be concerned about. We've taken off in light snow before. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">As our pilot began turning the King Air to taxi to the runway, we quickly figured out that the brakes on one of the plane's wheels had frozen up. The wheels would not turn at all. Obviously, we cannot take-off or land with a wheel that does not turn. So our pilot tried moving the King Air forward in an attempt to brake the ice loose. No luck. He tried again. Once again, nothing. At this point, there really wasn't anything we could do except push the plane back into the hangar and let the ice melt - ending our chances of flying. Our pilot gave it one last shot, and all of a sudden the wheel broke loose from the ice and we were good to go. Wow! Sigh of relief.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We taxied to the runway to take off. By this time, the light snow that was falling had turned into a moderate snow. We stopped at the runway as our pilot radioed Air Traffic Control to get clearance to take off. We were told to wait 5-10 minutes as another plane was in the area and needed to move first. We ended up waiting about 15 minutes before we were given clearance, during which an inch of snow had accumulated on the wings. This could have presented another problem. Right before we entered the runway, our pilot told us that if the snow on the wings had not blown off by the time we were traveling 60 knots (70 mph) down the runway, we would have to abort take-off - again, this would probably end our chances of flying. We took off down the runway, and fortunately the snow blew off rather quickly and before I knew it we were in the air and headed to Lake Ontario.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><i>Flight</i></b> - The flight itself, compared with what we had just gone through, was fairly easy. However, once we got to the weak developing snow band and began flying through the tops of the clouds, we noticed that there was a lot of supercooled liquid water in the clouds. The air temperature was -25C. Supercooled liquid water is water that remains a liquid at temperatures below freezing. Water, under the right conditions, can actually exist in the atmosphere as a liquid down to temperatures as low as -30C or even -40C. Pretty cool. Anyway, supercooled liquid water freezes immediately once it hits an object, kind of like freezing rain. That's how you get those really cool, wind-blown ice features on trees at the tops of mountains in the winter. Those features are called rime, or rimed ice. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Anyway, too much supercooled liquid water presents a MAJOR issue for the King Air (and any airplane, really). When the liquid hits the wings of the plane and our instruments attached to the wing, it freezes and creates a layer of ice on the wings and instruments (and ice can be pretty heavy). Eventually, if the ice builds up too much, it causes aerodynamic problems and will also prevent the instruments from working properly (if at all). Planes have the ability to break a lot of the ice off the wings, but any ice that builds up on the instruments will remain there until landing. So we were encountering a LOT of liquid in these clouds, causing some ice to begin to accrue. And this was at the TOP of the clouds. Eventually a couple of our instruments stopped working, and we still had to fly INTO the clouds at lower altitudes later in the flight. The possibility existed that were might have to end the flight early if the icing was worse down below.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">When we did finally drop down to a lower altitude, we weren't sure what to expect in the snow band clouds. More liquid? Or ice crystals? We were hoping the cloud would mostly be made of ice crystals because ice crystals are already frozen and do not stick to the instruments. But if there was so much liquid at higher altitudes, what were the chances that there would be ice crystals below? Turns out that was indeed the case - mostly ice crystals at the lower elevations. We lucked out again and were able to finish the flight as we had planned! Not only that, but somehow the snow band had intensified immensely during the flight and was dumping snow at 3 inches/hour below! One of our OWLeS groups measured 17 inches of snow over a period of 6 hours. In hindsight, this was perhaps the strongest band we have seen since OWLeS began (even though it was a very short event...the band weakened during the early morning hours). Very surprising, and we collected a great data set!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><i>Landing and post-flight</i></b> - You thought the story was over? Haha, yeah right. The conditions at the airport where we were to land were pretty good as we were coming in - overcast with some light snow and visibility of 5 miles. We came in for the landing, touched down successfully, and began taxiing back to the hangar. We parked the plane outside the hangar and went inside to warm up and put some of our belongings away. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We had to go back outside though to help bring the plane into the hangar. Total blizzard! Heavy snow and gusty winds, seemingly out of nowhere. The airport we're at has these little "tugs" that push the planes into/out of the hangars, similar to those little vehicles that push commercial airliners away from the gate. Anyway, the tug could not get any traction to pull the plane due to the quickly-accumulating snow. So we all had to actually help push the King Air back into the hangar - with our own hands! We were throwing sand under the tires of the tug to give it traction as well. Never thought I'd be doing that at the end of the night. Fortunately, we got the plane back in the hangar. Finally, we were done! Below are two pictures of some of the rimed ice that had built up on the instruments and remained all the way to the end.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Rimed ice on a few of our instruments</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A big chunk of rimed ice from the plane</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So I hope that story was as gripping for you as for me. Given that we were almost prevented from flying 3 separate times before we even left the ground - and then we ended up collecting a tremendous data set from an unexpectedly strong lake-effect snow band - I'd say yesterday was just an all-together awesome day!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">As promised, here are the rest of the photos from my visit to North Redfield today...</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Lacona, NY - at least 3 feet of snow here</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpj0gcVP5ZyUQP3E5Rh0kV__mCx7HsWI6wyHohrua1tlT2QlGUttxRt9EYvnk71nL1AZHCxZeFt9rpuFrWzsJSbn5DtxSdroiJ2JS21iO9L1xfSNRUVjaxOhfRlrtXe3C7zzJHuVb056A/s1600/IMG_1687.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpj0gcVP5ZyUQP3E5Rh0kV__mCx7HsWI6wyHohrua1tlT2QlGUttxRt9EYvnk71nL1AZHCxZeFt9rpuFrWzsJSbn5DtxSdroiJ2JS21iO9L1xfSNRUVjaxOhfRlrtXe3C7zzJHuVb056A/s640/IMG_1687.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The hotplate I had to raise ~3 feet higher. Otherwise, it would eventually get buried by all the snow. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The top of the plate is ~5 feet off the ground already</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgICh0EePc16WjoWRE0wxJvDH2CWA5g-ovsQMDrN7cwSJrNoiSyhpwNr44oOS79oyxjfK-xBFJUygKJwSKJ80kWEXqFxGbZrrXxI7eWIrhBTa4tK-lZgO_oZY1LtTcepLEphS7_sw_LbIk/s1600/IMG_1693.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgICh0EePc16WjoWRE0wxJvDH2CWA5g-ovsQMDrN7cwSJrNoiSyhpwNr44oOS79oyxjfK-xBFJUygKJwSKJ80kWEXqFxGbZrrXxI7eWIrhBTa4tK-lZgO_oZY1LtTcepLEphS7_sw_LbIk/s640/IMG_1693.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I was standing on about 2 feet of snow in this photo. The deepest spots came up to my chest!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoFDeyOfwCTwG8tnPcU0ttBkQBO4Qzm3R8EjOj09jpsK36Z7ORmKR0IUT37sMEgMFRTTCcSRJb_kjWe1ExMQTcjJ1kjN42WKRrKvLXK_YgFffbXGr6wJaUJfJiu3eHoDMHKGkCJX1feng/s1600/IMG_1697.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoFDeyOfwCTwG8tnPcU0ttBkQBO4Qzm3R8EjOj09jpsK36Z7ORmKR0IUT37sMEgMFRTTCcSRJb_kjWe1ExMQTcjJ1kjN42WKRrKvLXK_YgFffbXGr6wJaUJfJiu3eHoDMHKGkCJX1feng/s640/IMG_1697.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The huge house at the site</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdUVxB5kfXjEP1whK4_TwDjaLE5juo7Ic6qkMWZD28II7rMZQ8rSrzc7Xy_elBedYgv1CbJhLjpe9dGpDf-4hyN4GDrWp60_PrvbV7r4vUbc_9lhVTO59Jh8OvSJdeK7_Ft3Xk7dOZwk8/s1600/IMG_1699.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdUVxB5kfXjEP1whK4_TwDjaLE5juo7Ic6qkMWZD28II7rMZQ8rSrzc7Xy_elBedYgv1CbJhLjpe9dGpDf-4hyN4GDrWp60_PrvbV7r4vUbc_9lhVTO59Jh8OvSJdeK7_Ft3Xk7dOZwk8/s640/IMG_1699.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Beautiful snow!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKO8UVBGPPrYigfdqBRfPhm8e001T4igKbSlxNknzQq44aTiviu7OJtfGRT3zv1L3L5VHtAyB_C9VVTPVx5YJL6rZvIf90_-vQLGxaJdc9qqVPyKDmJjv62dL2GBfg57zFtZK5U7-El1k/s1600/IMG_1700.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKO8UVBGPPrYigfdqBRfPhm8e001T4igKbSlxNknzQq44aTiviu7OJtfGRT3zv1L3L5VHtAyB_C9VVTPVx5YJL6rZvIf90_-vQLGxaJdc9qqVPyKDmJjv62dL2GBfg57zFtZK5U7-El1k/s640/IMG_1700.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">One of the University of Utah insturments</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivDJR_FZ25FHPhXK1ccQClOhbR7EGZkhhirN5Jmxv8usK6neVepPwr7P4O4-kUHMBr9npgV2bYjR4r5ZiVAL4UKIKl7vXxC3ZViz80Vy1wc1L0pzxhPHlzngnWK7lEVAZ0XSQ7xHjwLCA/s1600/IMG_1701.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivDJR_FZ25FHPhXK1ccQClOhbR7EGZkhhirN5Jmxv8usK6neVepPwr7P4O4-kUHMBr9npgV2bYjR4r5ZiVAL4UKIKl7vXxC3ZViz80Vy1wc1L0pzxhPHlzngnWK7lEVAZ0XSQ7xHjwLCA/s640/IMG_1701.jpg" width="448" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Huge icicle </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0iKPGmr_C0dttZyEbAfvKm3gp05EY8-1Hd1OmKb7mRp5PKq-blptJHiTuxgQWYfpUR5VdhASubgsK_jb3CBvDmkaY2tSgDlKfhyphenhyphenaizqXAoEdRfBL84OTqZ-drplW6XMdUSB-LpYKpJrM/s1600/IMG_1705.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0iKPGmr_C0dttZyEbAfvKm3gp05EY8-1Hd1OmKb7mRp5PKq-blptJHiTuxgQWYfpUR5VdhASubgsK_jb3CBvDmkaY2tSgDlKfhyphenhyphenaizqXAoEdRfBL84OTqZ-drplW6XMdUSB-LpYKpJrM/s640/IMG_1705.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The raised hotplate. Now that's a lot better! I hope I don't have to come raise it AGAIN though...</td></tr>
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PBerghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384584399584441257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4007897762506617208.post-51346143794055464252013-12-15T00:55:00.000-07:002014-01-16T16:49:24.187-07:005 Feet!!!<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Before I review our most recent event, I wanted to show you all a video I made from the research flight I was on this past Tuesday (see below). We have a small camera aboard the King Air that takes a photograph every second, so you can actually take all of those photos and put them into a video - at the speed I have it, the video shows what it would look like flying at ~8,500 mph! Anyway, pay attention to the movement of the clouds and how they almost seem to "bubble up" as we fly by them. Enjoy!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So in my last post I let it be known that a big lake-effect snow event was in store, with possibly up to 3 feet of snow in some locations. It turns out that 60+ inches (5 feet) of snow ended up falling up in the hills east of Lake Ontario, with 66 inches in 78 hours at one of our OWLeS ground sites! Feel free to check out the blog from the <a href="http://wasatchweatherweenies.blogspot.com/2013/12/lake-effect-nearly-over-more-snow-coming.html" target="_blank">University of Utah group</a> who was stationed at that site during the event for photos.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I ended up flying in the King Air on Wednesday as well during the height of the event, when they were seeing snow falling at 3-4 inches/hour. In the end, this was a GREAT long-fetch lake-effect event! We collected a lot of very good data that will be analyzed in the years to come. We really could not have asked for a better event to study.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The lake-effect snow "machine" (as they like to call it up here) has been turned off for the time being, although a weak long-fetch single band may develop tomorrow (Sunday) evening or Monday morning and we may fly into it. Otherwise, the rest of the week looks relatively calm with regard to lake-effect snow. We are seeing some pretty good snow right now, but not of the lake-effect variety. Instead, this is a big snowstorm that is hitting the entire Northeast, from Washington D.C to Boston. Here in Geneva, NY we are expected possibly up to a foot of snow by the morning. I went out for some photos tonight just around the hotel. We had ~6 inches on the ground (maybe more) when these were taken, but it was hard to tell with all the blowing snow.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">20 mph winds, and gusts to 30+, helped created these drifts</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVByW__iMnWtE2NBKo6wSffMSHH7qDJUNPOYpFv027S5RCUy1fX-B0VdLrHZd-yggzP9SziAmG3hfZ1DCLa3rDqPyJ3f6F17tK9iAar64PFQtrfEQ_aAp2zTx6BikeJmyIxMeL8_-Kndg/s1600/IMG_1671.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVByW__iMnWtE2NBKo6wSffMSHH7qDJUNPOYpFv027S5RCUy1fX-B0VdLrHZd-yggzP9SziAmG3hfZ1DCLa3rDqPyJ3f6F17tK9iAar64PFQtrfEQ_aAp2zTx6BikeJmyIxMeL8_-Kndg/s640/IMG_1671.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fairly substantial waves from the strong winds on Seneca Lake</td></tr>
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<br />PBerghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384584399584441257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4007897762506617208.post-86751830000825211322013-12-10T19:53:00.001-07:002013-12-13T12:02:36.873-07:00Big snow coming!!!<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Today, I was finally able to fly 4th seat in the UW King Air over western New York. One of my main jobs while out here on this project is flying on the aircraft, although up to this point the 4th seat hasn't been available so I haven't yet been able to fly. Today, the seat was open! For those of you asking what the person in the 4th seat does, I will address that in a future post when I talk more about the King Air itself. For now, just know that the person in the 4th seat gets to help out with a lot of stuff during the flight, but also gets to sort of be the person who is "along for the ride". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Anyway, we flew through some lake-effect snow bands that had originally developed over Lake Erie and were moving eastward over land. Lake Erie is southwest of Lake Ontario and also gets a lot of lake-effect snow. One of the many scientific goals of OWLeS is to study what is known as the "downwind persistence" of lake-effect snow. In more simple words, how are these lake-effect snow bands able to continue to grow and stay strong even after they move far from the lake? Today's flight collected data that might help answer that question. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Remember from my previous post that the lake-effect snow forms and strengthens over the lakes mainly due to the temperature difference between the lake water and the very cold air above it. Well, once a snow band moves off the lake, it loses that temperature difference (the land is much cooler than the water), yet these snow bands often stay very strong up to 100 or more miles from the lake. Why is that, and what meteorological processes are controlling it? We had one of the scientists onboard the flight who was wanting to study this and try to answer these questions. Below are some photos I took during the flight.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWP2dgETU0sXxDQrFckeKk5s5nOgs35G2W1s60IG9_hvQU3v4iSazDBBOkbIetEGbsPO34F3V7WxWpdTH71_t_IeeFqlJs3BBJt0J1yR2bF7Zn2cgZJuyOELg5V7LaGOH_qmqeg1VxqFY/s1600/IMG_1580.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWP2dgETU0sXxDQrFckeKk5s5nOgs35G2W1s60IG9_hvQU3v4iSazDBBOkbIetEGbsPO34F3V7WxWpdTH71_t_IeeFqlJs3BBJt0J1yR2bF7Zn2cgZJuyOELg5V7LaGOH_qmqeg1VxqFY/s400/IMG_1580.JPG" height="424" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">My display in the 4th seat shows data from our lidar (all the reds, yellows, and blues), <br />which is sort of like a radar, and our flight track plotted on top of <br />the National Weather Service radar map</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipPpPGTRR-nNa13hM_mRENpBUZrjDcrqU6SAzD0KTeJJwlL2fVuRI1R7JBbf-V67niiBQmrwKqvqKc_Fpf2zdUGqGG1P_OzRiVYTsh2YsUyIh-9UBe9GSouyNSn0T-WmsVNuCp7lfE4Hk/s1600/IMG_1581.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipPpPGTRR-nNa13hM_mRENpBUZrjDcrqU6SAzD0KTeJJwlL2fVuRI1R7JBbf-V67niiBQmrwKqvqKc_Fpf2zdUGqGG1P_OzRiVYTsh2YsUyIh-9UBe9GSouyNSn0T-WmsVNuCp7lfE4Hk/s400/IMG_1581.JPG" height="425" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Flying at ~7000 ft above the ground east of the lake-effect snowbands. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This photo is looking southeast. Some of the weather instruments are visible</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">at the end of the wing!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">However, I am MORE excited about tomorrow! I will once again be flying 4th seat in the aircraft, except this time we will be flying over eastern Lake Ontario where a strong, long-fetch single band will be located. This single band has already developed as I am writing this and is currently dumping snow at 3-4 inches per hour at one of the OWLeS ground sites east of the lake! There are Lake-effect Snow Warnings across that whole region until 4am Thursday. The current radar image is shown below, where the dark greens indicate very heavy snowfall, and the red "X" is where our ground site is located.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY9yAm1c4ZtNdnplZ5ahDXCGoJ0mjT9HCWlF-tSlAeXTPBUIJyB3rTEaTT6u9WjRrVkOtGcwQkS7JIceNGMZ01DB0ryNgb6t2PdvKB_cgx2fuF6_GZBmZHdMqQ-rdsJSesFTqPA2ivQ7E/s1600/nexrad_single_band_12_10_2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY9yAm1c4ZtNdnplZ5ahDXCGoJ0mjT9HCWlF-tSlAeXTPBUIJyB3rTEaTT6u9WjRrVkOtGcwQkS7JIceNGMZ01DB0ryNgb6t2PdvKB_cgx2fuF6_GZBmZHdMqQ-rdsJSesFTqPA2ivQ7E/s400/nexrad_single_band_12_10_2013.jpg" height="449" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">National Weather Service radar map over upstate New York</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This band is expected to persist all the way into the day Thursday. By then, some places will have seen up to 3 feet of snow, and possibly more if the band does not move very much north and south. Because of this, we might also fly the airplane into the snow band Thursday AND Friday, hopefully collecting some good data. This is a fairly rare event, so we'll see how it turns out. And I'll certainly post an update later in the week to fill you in on what ends up happening!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">UPDATE: photo from before today's (Wednesday) flight over Lake Ontario. The ugly orange and black suits are dry suits, worn to keep us dry in case the worst case scenario (having to do a water landing over the lake) were to occur. It is not in our plans to let this happen :)<br /> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi75EdThbLXAz563JJcJPHFytYBUZveqwV6jzFzEov6RDUacgH_yWbKGwwT0RHIBh4nQXB8P6Ln9l5oBf25UWSmhcdz5LVZuBZJOGyPe1KGl83pI97MSZEIB5aapuR6yeDDd6f2qN5e9ZY/s1600/IMG_1588.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi75EdThbLXAz563JJcJPHFytYBUZveqwV6jzFzEov6RDUacgH_yWbKGwwT0RHIBh4nQXB8P6Ln9l5oBf25UWSmhcdz5LVZuBZJOGyPe1KGl83pI97MSZEIB5aapuR6yeDDd6f2qN5e9ZY/s320/IMG_1588.JPG" height="398" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just before takeoff. From L to R: Our pilot Brett, Phil, Scott the research scientist, and Jeff the flight scientist</td></tr>
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<br />PBerghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384584399584441257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4007897762506617208.post-39427911526112754792013-12-06T19:26:00.002-07:002014-01-09T02:47:02.656-07:00What is Lake-effect Snow, and Why Study It?<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If you live near the Great Lakes, and especially in upstate New York, you will have most likely heard of lake-effect snow before. But elsewhere, the term is probably foreign to your ears. So what is lake-effect snow? And what is so special about it? I personally think it is a very cool weather phenomenon, although the general process behind it are relatively simple.<br /><br />Lake-effect snow is simply snow that forms over a lake (in our case, Lake Ontario in the Great Lakes) due to the difference between the temperature of the lake surface and the air directly above it. Lake-effect snow occurs at large lakes all over the world, but is perhaps most prominent over the North American Great Lakes. In late autumn or early winter, before the lakes freeze over, very cold airmasses from Canada will occasionally swing down over the Great Lakes, bringing frigid temperatures to the region. The air might be 10-20 degrees Fahrenheit, while the lake water temperature might still be 40-50 degrees. This creates a situation where the lake water is much, much warmer than the air flowing over it. <br /><br />Most of us know that warm air rises as long as it is warmer than the air around it. As the cold air flows over the much warmer lakes, the air in contact with the water will warm due to conduction and will also pick up lots of moisture from the lake itself. This creates a layer of relatively warm, humid air right above the water which eventually begins to rise through the cold, dry air around it. Just like with summertime thunderstorms, this rising warm air eventually cools off to the point that condensation can occur, forming a cloud, and eventually snow. If the warm air is rising fast enough, and contains enough moisture, then the snow that forms in the cloud can become very heavy in a very short period of time. This is illustrated in the photo below.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Lake-effect snow can take two general forms, depending primarily on the fetch (distance the cold air has to travel over the water) over the lake. Because the longest axis of Lake Ontario is from west to east, the wind has to be going from west to east as well to create the longest fetches. In these types of long-fetch situations, a single, thin band of heavy snow often develops over the lake parallel to the wind direction. This snow band will usually move eastward off the lake and dump huge amounts of snow over the eastern shores and even farther inland.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv_SnTQQZr58NZZ6gCaFa489MEUEh2-2lY79EW7kHCl2JnsTEc9FpZqh1HibYHsbvwWFBZ-bVzylKd1AWxInR3g2C1FeZZ_RRiDS7sl19wdP-qANgBAyUjq7-L1pG_YxY9qF62d_C6AMw/s1600/110120_G13_VIS_11.GIF" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv_SnTQQZr58NZZ6gCaFa489MEUEh2-2lY79EW7kHCl2JnsTEc9FpZqh1HibYHsbvwWFBZ-bVzylKd1AWxInR3g2C1FeZZ_RRiDS7sl19wdP-qANgBAyUjq7-L1pG_YxY9qF62d_C6AMw/s320/110120_G13_VIS_11.GIF" height="480" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Satellite image of a single long-fetch lake-effect snow band</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The other form that lake-effect snow can take is in multiple bands, which occur when the fetch over the lake is much smaller. This is typically the case when the winds are coming from the north or northwest, more perpendicular to the long axis of Lake Ontario. Multiple bands are generally weaker and more spread out than single bands and do not dump nearly as much snow. These types of snow bands are very common over some of the other Great Lakes as well, such as Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. Single band and multiple band lake-effect snow events sometimes even occur on the same day over different regions.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinknrjxgQzfi3wOs74suv6RnYyvWear_yRCxM_EJW4R6LEh2OF2DJI58J6RQr_izm6mUFl1PXw3jBIE42ySNhiEY-0Wlyp9ouVdfKEEyUETfWxNmXeZBTn8vfFi5KOHGu3FXB9ssaj2qs/s1600/Lake_Effect_Snow_on_Earth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinknrjxgQzfi3wOs74suv6RnYyvWear_yRCxM_EJW4R6LEh2OF2DJI58J6RQr_izm6mUFl1PXw3jBIE42ySNhiEY-0Wlyp9ouVdfKEEyUETfWxNmXeZBTn8vfFi5KOHGu3FXB9ssaj2qs/s320/Lake_Effect_Snow_on_Earth.jpg" height="614" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Multiple lake-effect snow bands over Lakes Superior and Michigan</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">When a major lake-effect snow event occurs, the results can be incredible. Some spots east of Lake Ontario at higher elevations average over 200 inches of snow every winter, most of that due to lake-effect snow from long-fetch single bands. One memorable lake-effect storm back in February 2007 dumped 141 inches of snow in Redfield, NY over a 10-day period. Most winters see at least one storm drop 3-4 feet of snow somewhere east of Lake Ontario, and sometimes off of Lake Erie near Buffalo, NY, over just a few days. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Some of the questions we are trying to answer during this research project relate to what the winds are like near these strong snow bands, how these snow bands keep their strength and intensity once they move off of the lake to the east, and what exactly is going on in the clouds to cause the snowfall to become so intense in the first place? Because of how intense these storms can get, and because they often impact many people, it is crucial to be able to understand as much as we can about how they form so we can forecast them more effectively and prepare for when they occur. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Below are a few more photos related to lake-effect snow that you may find interesting. I will hopefully be adding more photos to this page as the project continues, including perhaps a few of my own lake-effect snow photos!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Average winter snowfall (inches) across upstate New York. Lake Ontario is at the top</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Total lake-effect snowfall (inches) from the 10-day storm in February 2007. <br />Note how small the area is that received the most snow</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Lake-effect snow aftermath in Oswego, NY<br />(Photo by Dave Kelly)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Lake-effect snow clouds in the distance</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">P.S. We will be having our first official IOP (Intensive Operations Period) tomorrow afternoon (Saturday, Dec. 7). In other words, the first OWLeS lake-effect event is about to happen. Unfortunately, I will not be flying in the King Air this time. But next week looks much more promising for a strong lake-effect event, during which I will most likely be on the plane! Stay tuned...</span>PBerghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384584399584441257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4007897762506617208.post-40904813864362426602013-12-04T00:12:00.001-07:002013-12-13T12:01:03.223-07:00Settling In<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So I have arrived in Geneva, NY for OWLeS. The hotel I am staying in sits right on the northern shores of Seneca Lake, one of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_Lakes" target="_blank">New York Finger Lakes</a>. My window looks directly out over the lake to the east. I call that a win! Be on the ready for epic sunrise photos finding their way into this blog. In total, there are currently six of us here from the University of Wyoming - myself, our pilot, two engineers, and two other atmospheric scientists. There are eight others from UW who will be coming out at some point in the next two months, although not all at the same time. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The last 24 hours have been a rush - getting to Geneva, picking up last-minute supplies, getting food, driving to the airport to pick up equipment from our trailer, driving 2 hours to the east side of Lake Ontario to drop off and assemble some weather instruments and a snow crystal camera at one of our ground sites - it's been busy. At least I was able to hang out will some cool folks from the University of Utah while I was there. The project officially begins this Thursday, although it appears as if the weather conditions will not be favorable for lake-effect snow development until Saturday at the earliest. So we wait, although this does not mean I will be sitting around watching TV all day. I will be quite busy for the rest of the week with a variety of things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">First, there is an OWLeS Media Day tomorrow (Wednesday) at the local airport. We'll be showcasing many of our weather instruments and sensors to people from the community. Our research aircraft and the Doppler on Wheels radars will also be there. After that, assuming my OWLeS responsibilities are on hold until Saturday, I have homework and a take-home final exam to do! (I know, right?!?) Eventually, the fun stuff will begin and I'll have stories to tell and pictures to show.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In my next post, I'm going to talk a little bit about lake-effect snow, especially since some of you may not exactly know what it is. It's pretty cool stuff, and the amount of snow some of these storms dump is incredible! Also, at some point down the road, I'll hopefully put a post together about our research aircraft (the University of Wyoming King Air). With the Science Posse, whenever I give a lab tour I usually try to turn it into a King Air tour. After all, the sky is my lab. So if you happen to visit the Science Posse for a lab tour in Laramie, you might also get a chance to see the King Air up close!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Stay tuned over the next couple of days for my next update!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">-Phil<br /><br />UPDATE:<br />Here are a few photos from today's Media Day. The turnout was quite good. There were a number of elementary school groups that visited, and also some local TV stations. Enjoy!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrrfh3ilOzO90RRgXzMskheJc4y4S6moOgbg0DxyxtxF3vkk6UXG4CNXWlGocN8XlMjiwDFwlN_dsjA4xq2Pc_EUsE_nghOwn9Np41sjkJ5CMG9jqnm3UeajGNdOYwHPGDZT2AStqemq4/s1600/IMG_1534.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrrfh3ilOzO90RRgXzMskheJc4y4S6moOgbg0DxyxtxF3vkk6UXG4CNXWlGocN8XlMjiwDFwlN_dsjA4xq2Pc_EUsE_nghOwn9Np41sjkJ5CMG9jqnm3UeajGNdOYwHPGDZT2AStqemq4/s320/IMG_1534.JPG" height="400" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">OWLeS Media Day</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwZOvVaXaXUoU0bq844VGVteCKOG4hvHCvPbescJzXCtxhKbRN76wtLM8Rq1TtcFvzf9Qp1iUT58gZCVbK5r7mrVNXt6Vr29FyDm69e0GO1eU2hMho-98Vest5wm4mKHAT9Kpm6VcJJc8/s1600/IMG_1536.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwZOvVaXaXUoU0bq844VGVteCKOG4hvHCvPbescJzXCtxhKbRN76wtLM8Rq1TtcFvzf9Qp1iUT58gZCVbK5r7mrVNXt6Vr29FyDm69e0GO1eU2hMho-98Vest5wm4mKHAT9Kpm6VcJJc8/s320/IMG_1536.JPG" height="490" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">U. of Alabama-Huntsville Mobile Integrated Profiling System (MIPS)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSJW5ODrPxVZWn57ox3m8WxM5ivDU_r8A4avyWLyEIVKhfTGAuM4-62md6RZykihB1BritlIv-ewpo3InGQFcJnxA-0l5auOn1PnnaF6Mp5sTQOil_t94aR-62B-1vQjNQNQLSAYYOao8/s1600/IMG_1538.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSJW5ODrPxVZWn57ox3m8WxM5ivDU_r8A4avyWLyEIVKhfTGAuM4-62md6RZykihB1BritlIv-ewpo3InGQFcJnxA-0l5auOn1PnnaF6Mp5sTQOil_t94aR-62B-1vQjNQNQLSAYYOao8/s320/IMG_1538.JPG" height="432" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Doppler on Wheels (DOW) group</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRQQW1BgoRpFGUTEgtZU_2aMOE1XZNQfvOcrMWtGBvTnxszNyNLfqwFGH5jr2YDXfNl7pYcgW6mH5Q3drYHA9ovTBcy6DhfDPS2ILRPKIyGrlpP_N3VfCHW00Md5UiHr4NvmP93MuHR6E/s1600/IMG_1541.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRQQW1BgoRpFGUTEgtZU_2aMOE1XZNQfvOcrMWtGBvTnxszNyNLfqwFGH5jr2YDXfNl7pYcgW6mH5Q3drYHA9ovTBcy6DhfDPS2ILRPKIyGrlpP_N3VfCHW00Md5UiHr4NvmP93MuHR6E/s320/IMG_1541.JPG" height="456" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tornado Pods</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIJCIrjfynNQRmGVcXeFGmOCJXzlu1_0sshmupYIw3ZJOno-qxm6COOLxwE2R58NBqQFUI6gwtm4757NJn8ZK5aoc1e8bA2tTr41LW4g3bWO2pa0UitqWvO1nem5iH-uX0Rk84N51K5ik/s1600/IMG_1542.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIJCIrjfynNQRmGVcXeFGmOCJXzlu1_0sshmupYIw3ZJOno-qxm6COOLxwE2R58NBqQFUI6gwtm4757NJn8ZK5aoc1e8bA2tTr41LW4g3bWO2pa0UitqWvO1nem5iH-uX0Rk84N51K5ik/s320/IMG_1542.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hobart & William Smith College group</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuHAHorUJBKViHhYyYXRFaGkNefoFCTHlcXlGBu5BVn3E4NnpgfpGAZ5NiezcXM_8EmdTfZQrV1gvmyN_UIS-0BOBgHFdxIfiKQGAarFZMCU14Ky0xrcnt7cyizjSXsyXpfCKKHuzP-_M/s1600/IMG_1546.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuHAHorUJBKViHhYyYXRFaGkNefoFCTHlcXlGBu5BVn3E4NnpgfpGAZ5NiezcXM_8EmdTfZQrV1gvmyN_UIS-0BOBgHFdxIfiKQGAarFZMCU14Ky0xrcnt7cyizjSXsyXpfCKKHuzP-_M/s320/IMG_1546.JPG" height="462" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DOW</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTV5vixjXMW6R-WBkNrZSWU_vKg-yWAmY8hl43ptFI2sqUXXKoZPzovKc9sYov9k67QSgY9eC9v1x9E1etllabFhx5I1QidsLrHi6y0tvLSVEWO_gnbW_8G2tLgT-gntIXtWzlJtc329w/s1600/IMG_1547.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTV5vixjXMW6R-WBkNrZSWU_vKg-yWAmY8hl43ptFI2sqUXXKoZPzovKc9sYov9k67QSgY9eC9v1x9E1etllabFhx5I1QidsLrHi6y0tvLSVEWO_gnbW_8G2tLgT-gntIXtWzlJtc329w/s320/IMG_1547.JPG" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjws4e2B84LyV36jisDKu5IUVfAOazVgpRKa5vKsX0de_QdQovjwdLFrfxwh1_cRbBgEPQx287RrWvlRFisdY31_viKdAwx-NxYxbhL9YSM2rNXVvZHkbE5euXS2OBBWzpRiJ5xOctmuv0/s1600/IMG_1550.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjws4e2B84LyV36jisDKu5IUVfAOazVgpRKa5vKsX0de_QdQovjwdLFrfxwh1_cRbBgEPQx287RrWvlRFisdY31_viKdAwx-NxYxbhL9YSM2rNXVvZHkbE5euXS2OBBWzpRiJ5xOctmuv0/s320/IMG_1550.JPG" height="366" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">U. of Wyoming King Air</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>PBerghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384584399584441257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4007897762506617208.post-27504343409066543732013-11-20T23:50:00.001-07:002013-11-21T13:15:00.480-07:00Welcome and Preview of things to come!!!<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Greetings and welcome to my blog!<br /><br />This will be (somewhat) short and sweet. In less than two weeks, I will be heading to upstate New York from Wyoming to participate in a very large field project focusing on lake-effect snowstorms over Lake Ontario. This project, named OWLeS (Ontario Winter Lake-effect Systems), will officially be the largest lake-effect snow research campaign that has ever been attempted. Involved in OWLeS will be some 70+ researchers, faculty, and students from nine universities and research centers from across the country. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Once the project begins, I will be posting semi-regular updates (with photos!) as time permits of some of different things that are taking place. This will hopefully give a "behind the scenes" perspective into the various activities that occur during a large field campaign like OWLeS. I will also provide a glimpse into some of my own duties, which should include many flights aboard the University of Wyoming's very own King Air research airplane. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Finally, some may ask why I am even writing a blog in the first place. At the University of Wyoming, I am a part of what is known as the <a href="http://www.uwyo.edu/scienceposse/" target="_blank">UW Science Posse</a>, a small group of graduate students in STEM fields (science, technology,
engineering and mathematics) who travel throughout the state of Wyoming sharing their passion for science with middle and high school students through lessons, career talks, and other educational approaches. As I will be absent for all of December and much of January, I felt it would be neat to give students back in Wyoming the opportunity to "take part" in this field project by following me on my journey into the realm of lake-effect snowstorms. Hopefully, any students who wish to do so will fully enjoy what is in store! :)<br /><br />-Phil</span>PBerghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384584399584441257noreply@blogger.com0