Synthesis for May 29, 2001

Summary for May 29, 2001

Investigator: (Monte Bateman)

Research flight 1944 to 2008

One case: small anvil attached to a long lasting active core;

Good case for investigating Efield with reflectivity curtain across an anvil.

Medium to high priority

The storm with a short attached anvil moved from west of KSC, over KSC and then out over the water until out of radar range. It became more coherent and unicellular as it moved more off shore maintaining coherence for several hours. The continuity was probably a result of a short wave which moved through the area.

Many good passes across the anvil in roughly E/W directions. E fields in stronger reflectivity regions maintained strength throughout the study.

Periods of stronger E fields corresponding to higher reflectivities (~25 to 30 dBZ) were:
20:16 - 20:17 UTC
20:21 - 20:23 UTC
20:27 - 20:30 UTC
20:32 - 29:34 UTC
20:40 - 20:45 UTC
20:52 - 20:57 UTC
21:00 - 21:06 UTC
21:12 - 21:18 UTC
21:35 - 21:40 UTC

Monte Bateman's summary:

We flew another mission on Tuesday. Convection appeared over much of the FL. By mid-afternoon it reached us on the east coast; the plane took off around 1540. We were able to get in position to catch cells forming over the KSC FM network, which developed anvils and then moved out over the Atlantic. The storm maintained a single cell that persisted the whole flight. We suspect it was long-lived due to the short wave that passed through. The anvil was too short to fly toward the core, so we made several passes across the anvil at various distances from the active convection. The plane landed around 1845.