010618 -- Case Summary 
Flight Times: 2007 - 2220

There was no attenuation of the 74C radar during this flight.

Type:   small convect line decay near strat.   

There was 45-50 dBZ reflectivity with lightning in the region the
aircraft flew at 1844. There is really no storm motion so this is
debris.

Beginning about 1900 (4km) , two major cells were developing, one just
inland about 50 km S of Patrick, and the second about 140 km S of PAFB
on the east shore of Lake Okeechobee. New cells formed between these
two, and a more or less continuous line formed south from PAFB and along
the east shore of the Lake by 2000 (4km) . By 2015 (4km) a new cell
formed inland W of the Cape, and the cells down by the Lake appeared to
dominate. The cells just N of the lake became dominant by 2045 (4km) ,
but a huge stratiform region developed south along the east side of the
Lake, and a mostly stratiform line paralleled the coast to a point not
far south of Patrick. The active cells continued to develop and move NW
and W of the lake, while the stratiform areas remained in a line
and propagated slowly to the east at levels from 7-10 km.

The aircraft sampling was
at 8 km altitude in the stratiform anvil line extending north parallel
to the coast, and in the stratiform regions east of the active cells.

The time history of this system, particularly where the charged
hydrometeors were electrified, and transported from, is very complex.
This detracts from a straightforward analysis. There seems to be two
regimes in the advecting winds measured at the 8 km flight altitude -
WNW and NE. One is probably the environmental flow, and the other the
flow created by the mesoscale cloud system.

The radar scan strategy has shortcomings for
producing 10 km CAPPI's., e.g. at 10 km. One scan intersects the cloud
at a range, while the next one goes over the top. The overlap, and the
voids must be considered when interpreting the data at anvil levels.

This case is characterized by very strong fields. Of particular interest
are the fields after the lightning moves to the west, and some structure
at the cloud edges. The fields (Ez) in the first half of the flight are
predominantly positive, but in the second half there are
interesting reversals. The period from 2150  to the
end of the flights are quite weak, and this may be a
good case to look at weakening, although perhaps we are too far east and
did not stay long enough. A Lagrangian analysis will tell if this is a
good weakening candidate.

2037-2040 There is a reversal at 2037-2038, the highest
fields are close to the highest Z's, but the field seems to end, then
the Z ends then the cloud ends