Daily Schedule

Here is the S-MODE Plan of the Day for Sunday, April 30:

Updates:

  • The B200 flew its 22nd and final flight of the IOP-2 campaign. There is now ~95 more hours of DopplerScatt data to sift through (wow!), with a good amount of collocated data from MOSES. This was a truly herculean effort by the B200 flight crew and operators, especially our MVP (Most Valuable Pilot) Rob Koteskey, who alone flew ~75 hours over the past month…and it’s his birthday today!
  • The G-III/PRISM team ended its campaign as well and the aircraft will transit back home tomorrow. The team finished the IOP-2 campaign on a high note, with a 5.5-hour data collection in near perfect conditions on Thursday. Great job!
  • The Sally Ride is following the floats while surveying today. The biology team continues their time series. Inclement weather possibly arriving Monday may force the team to collect floats tomorrow.

 Aircraft plan and schedule:

  • 1000: G-III transit to Langley Airfield
  • The B200 will have a hard down day tomorrow before transiting to Edwards AFB on Monday morning.

 Meeting schedule:

Plan of the Day for Saturday, April 29:

Updates:

  • The B200 flew its 21st flight of the IOP-2 campaign, but clouds prevented MOSES and PRISM data collections.
  • The Sally Ride is busy today recovering the Lagrangian Floats and also two Seagliders. Afterwards, the team will resurvey the target area and redeploy floats.

 Aircraft plan and schedule:

  • NET 1000: G-III SF#7 takeoff
  • 1000: Preflight meeting for B200 SF#22
  • NET 1100: B200 SF #22 takeoff (final B200 S-MODE flight)

 Ship and in situ plan:

  • The Sally Ride will follow the redeployed floats tomorrow with the Moving Vessel Profiler (MVP) and EcoCTD

 Meeting schedule:

Plan of the Day for Friday, April 28:

Updates:

  • Both the B200 and G-III flew today. The optical instruments finally got a very clear day, and the winds were cooperating for DopplerScatt!
  • Continuing to sample in the same area, a small (submesoscale) section of what we refer to as SWOTland, or within the swath of the SWOT satellite.

 Aircraft plan and schedule:

  • NET 1000: G-III SF#8 takeoff
  • 1130: Preflight meeting for B200 SF#21
  • NET 1300: B200 SF #21 takeoff
  • Aircraft operations will conclude after Saturday’s flights

 Ship and in situ plan:

  • The Sally Ride will continue to deploy drifters, recover and redeploy Lagrangian floats, and may look to recover some Seagliders to the east tomorrow morning after the CTD station.
  • Array of Wave Gliders will need to reposition daily, following the front. Their lines have been shortened from 12 km to 8 km.
  • The ship is expected to leave the operations area Tuesday, May 2 by 1800L.

 Meeting schedule:

Here is the S-MODE Plan of the Day for Thursday, April 27:

Updates:

  • The MASS Twin Otter flew its twelfth and final science flight of the S-MODE IOP-2 campaign. Thank you to Luc L, Luke C, Nick S, Brent, and Vince for your tireless work!!
  • The B200 flew today with DopplerScatt, but low clouds prevented MOSES data collection and a G-III flight with PRISM.
  • The Sally Ride continued their “W” experiment to measure vertical velocity.

 Aircraft plan and schedule:

  • The B200 and G-III are aiming to fly their final science flights tomorrow through Saturday, with aircraft operations concluding after Saturday’s flights.
  • NET 1030: G-III SF#7 takeoff
  • 1130: Preflight meeting for B200 SF#20
  • NET 1300: B200 SF #20 takeoff

 Ship and in situ plan:

  • The weekend weather is looking better for the Sally Ride, so the plan is to continue collecting data in the area of interest after aircraft ops are complete with gliders, floats, and drifters.
  • The ship is expected to leave the operations area Tuesday, May 2 by 1800L.

 Meeting schedule:

Here is the S-MODE Plan of the Day for Wednesday, April 26:

Updates:

  • The team continues to look at the same target area, which is slowly morphing and changing. It is precisely this gradual evolution that is really exciting for science. S-MODE is providing an unprecedented view of ocean physics and biology with so many different views and angles. There is going to be much learned from this data.
  • The B200 and Twin Otter flew today, but low clouds prevented a G-III flight with PRISM.
  • The Sally Ride began their “W” experiment to measure vertical velocity, the bio team continued their time series, and the Wave Gliders were piloted in tight formations.

 Aircraft plan and schedule:

  • NET 1000: G-III SF#7 takeoff
  • 0930: Preflight meeting for B200 SF#19
  • NET 1000: MASS TO SF#12 takeoff (last science flight)
  • NET 1100: B200 SF #19 takeoff

 Ship and in situ plan:

  • Four Lagrangian floats around the eddy/front plus continuing ship surveys. “Tuning ‘till the end” (Eric D’Asaro)

 Meeting schedule:

Here is the Plan of the Day for Tuesday, April 25:

Updates:

  • The B200 and Twin Otter flew today with the goal of providing more information on an area with two eddies that are interacting with each other (“Eddy AB”). Eddy AB appears to be moving WSW about 10km per day. Aircraft data will help to confirm this.
  • The Sally Ride and the Wave Gliders continue to survey this area. Recent tracks shown in Figure 2.

Aircraft plan and schedule:

  • Hopefully, a better day for optical instruments. B200 and MASS continue to track the evolution of Eddy AB.
  • Schedule for Tuesday, April 25:
    • §  NET 1030: G-III SF#7 takeoff
    • §  1130: Preflight meeting for B200 SF#18
    • §  NET 1200: MASS TO SF#11 takeoff
    • §  NET 1300: B200 SF #18 takeoff

 Ship and in situ plan:

  • The Sally Ride float team will prepare for a “W Experiment” to measure vertical velocity, while the bio team will continue their time series.

Meeting schedule:

Here is the S-MODE Plan of the Day for Monday, April 24:

Updates:

  • The team is tracking multiple eddies, which all seem to be interacting, and is narrowing the area of interest.

 Aircraft plan and schedule:

  • The B200 will fly shorter lines tomorrow with less separation between them. The Otter will plan accordingly, while PRISM will look for the best bio opportunities
  • Schedule for Monday, April 24:
  • NET 1030: G-III SF#7 takeoff
  • 1130: Preflight meeting for B200 SF#17
  • NET 1200: MASS TO SF#10 takeoff
  • NET 1300: B200 SF #17 takeoff

 Ship and in situ plan:

  • The Sally Ride float team will prepare for a “W Experiment” starting Tuesday to measure vertical velocity, while the bio team will continue the bio time series at eddy A.
  • In addition, the ship team will be deploying 25-30 drifters per day and performing a CTD line in eddy A.

 Meeting schedule:

Plan of the Day for Sunday, April 23:

Updates:

  • The B200 and MASS TO flew today.
  • The team would like to split some of the assets and investigate another eddy, labeled B in figure 1.

Aircraft plan and schedule:

  • All aircraft taking a hard down day
    • Outlook for Monday, April 24:
      • §  NET 1030: G-III SF#7 takeoff
      • §  1130: Preflight meeting for B200 SF#17
      • §  NET 1200: MASS TO SF#10 takeoff
      • §  NET 1300: B200 SF #17 takeoff

 Ship and in situ plan:

  • The Sally Ride will skip this evening’s CTD cast, and will start moving east to another eddy about fourteen nautical miles away. The team plans to deploy some drifters, do an ADCP survey, and possibly deploy a float.
  • Some of the Wave Gliders will also travel east to measure vertical velocity of the eastern eddy.

Meeting schedule:

Here is the Plan of the Day for Saturday, April 22:

Updates:

  • It was a pleasure to host NBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff and the Today Show crew at NASA Ames today! Thanks again to the PRISM and LaRC G-III teams!!
  • The B200 flew two flights today, with DopplerScatt continuing to track “Eddy” (the new S-MODE mascot). DopplerScatt data from today will aid the team in potentially transitioning to a new target for the final week.
  • Wave Gliders have begun to be driven in formation to accomplish one of the S-MODE mission objectives of measuring velocity gradients.

 Aircraft plan and schedule:

  • NET 1030: G-III SF#7 takeoff
  • 1130: Preflight meeting for B200 SF#16
  • NET 1200: MASS TO SF#9 takeoff
  • NET 1300: B200 SF #16 takeoff

 Ship and in situ plan:

  • The Sally Ride will continue surveying the eddy and tracking floats. Floats should be recovered tomorrow and redeployed.

 Meeting schedule:

Here is the S-MODE Plan of the Day for Friday, April 21:

Updates:

  • Mother Nature is granting S-MODE some Goldilocks days this week. All aircraft are flying. The team is targeting a pretty clear front and a cyclonic small-scale eddy that is rapidly changing – but there are other very attractive targets as well elsewhere in the operations area. The ship is performing a small-scale survey of the area along with the gliders, drifters, and floats. This is the S-MODE investigation design coming to fruition as it did during last Fall’s campaign.

Aircraft plan and schedule:

  • Four flights planned!
  • We will be hosting Jacob Soboroff and the NBC Today Show crew tomorrow at NASA Ames. Jacob and a cameraman will be donning flight suits and flying along on the LaRC G-III. BIG thanks in advance to the G-III pilots and operators for being great sports!
  • 0630: Preflight meeting for B200 SF#14 & SF#15
  • NET 0800: B200 SF #14 takeoff
  • NET 1030: G-III SF#6 takeoff
  • NET 1200: MASS TO SF#9 takeoff
  • NET 1400: B200 SF#15 takeoff

 Ship and in situ plan:

  • The Sally Ride will continue surveying the eddy and tracking the floats. The ship may venture a little bit to the north to explore the high-vorticity regions seen by DopplerScatt.

 Meeting schedule:

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