010624 -- Case Summary
Flight Times: 1757 - 2027

ANVIL CASE DAY

Attenuation Times for 010624:     1800 to 1930

Wet radome attenuation of 74C from ~1800 to ~1825 with >45 dBZ present
on 4 km NEXRAD CAPPI. From 1825 to end of flight there was 30 to 40 dBZ
over 74C. This would cause attenuation of ~1 to 2 dB but lingering
effects of the more intense precip might enhance wet radome attenuation.
After the strong line passed the radar at ~1825, the A/C was flying in
an area where attenuation due to intervening precipitation was
occurring. Careful comparison of the MER plots and CAPPIs from 74C and
NEXRAD suggest that substantial attenuation was occurring to the 74C
signal in the vicinity of the A/C from takeoff until ~1930. After 1930
74C shows somewhat smaller (~<5 dBZ) reflectivities than NEXRAD but has
similar overall structure.

Type: spatial decay of E for tornado case    

The citation performed NE/SW racetracks at an altitude of about 9 Km
from 18:00 to 20:30Z in a region of highly electrified anvil just east
of Cape Canaveral. This anvil was associated with a thunderstorm complex
that produced severe weather throughout Brevard County, including a
tornado at KSC. Heavy rain from the system fell on the WSR-74C resulting
in strong attenuation due to radome wetting, so NEXRAD data is used for
the analysis. While in-cloud (as well as surface) fields were high
throughout the period, there were cases of cloud entry and exit that may
be useful for analysis of field decay with distance from cloud edge.
There were also indications of penetration through or near charge
centers or screening layers. High fields were always associated with
box-averaged radar reflectivities > 5 dBz.  There was a leg
 over the ground based field mill network.  

There are several places where the sign of the vertical
component of the electric field changed.  This was a frequent
occurrence, and may indicate places where the aircraft passed near or
through centers of charge.

The portion of the convective system over Kennedy Space Center produced
a tornado near 18:30Z. 

The mobile field mill team was able to obtain several
data sets that were consistent with the data obtained from the KSC/CCAFS
field mill network.  These data showed large magnitude fields varying
rapidly in both space and time throughout the period of interest.


	The LDAR goes out about the time the aircraft arrives.

The convective line is in an arc shape where the top of the arc and the
bottom of the arc do not move in the same way.