Regional Atmospheric Measurement Modeling and Prediction Program (RAMMPP)


Summer 2001 Aircraft Research Update for: April 20

This is the first of the summer 2001 Maryland Aircraft Updates. Things have been changed a little since last year. In order to keep e-mail content to a minimum, I will circulate a very brief notice on the "RAMMPP 2001 Aircraft Update" e-mail reflector - including a large number of people interested in Mid-Atlantic air quality research - advising of any changes made to this web page. Project updates, flight plans, and flight data summaries will be posted regularly on this site throughout the summer. If you wish to be on this mailing list, please contact me via e-mail at bruce@atmos.umd.edu.

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The summer 2001 aircraft measurement campaign will kick-off Monday April 23, with two research flights in the vicinity of Richmond, VA (RIC). Under upper-level flow conditions similar to a summertime ridging pattern, we will compare data from the VADEQ radar profiler with RASS recently installed at the Virginia Science Museum (VSM) near downtown Richmond. We plan to fly vertical survey spirals over three airports near VSM, and compare profiles between locations and with the profiler. This will be done twice, during mid-morning and mid-afternoon on the same day, before returning to Maryland. We hope to satisfy several objectives from Monday's flight:
1. perform a "shakedown" of the aircraft and check out RIC airspace.
2. select a spiral location for comparison that most closely resembles the atmosphere above VSM
3. initiate our year-long program of (i) VSM profiler evaluation, and (ii) characterizing VA air quality.
A brief report will be posted on this web site after the flight.

Doddridge