Communications and Mission Planning Communications and Mission Planning Considerations for Hurricane Considerations for Hurricane RainbandRainband

and Intensity Experiment (RAINEX)and Intensity Experiment (RAINEX)

James A. Moore, Jose Meitin, Richard Dirks

UCAR/Joint Office for Science Support (JOSS)

Boulder, Colorado

RAINEX Planning Meeting RAINEX Planning Meeting

Miami, FL 15-17 November 2004

http://www.joss.ucar.edu/

RAINEX Real time Communications Overview

NCAR, NOAA,

Rest of the World

Operational ProductsSatellite ImageryModel ProductsSurface Observations RECON obs

Phones

Internet

Satcom

VHF

radio

Phones, Internet, FTP

RAINEX Operations Center

Composite Generation

Ops. Coordination Science Director

Facility Status Zebra analyses

Forecast Field Catalog

Model Analysis

RSMAS

NHC Products

HRD Products

Satcom

Satcom Satcom

LF, satelliteFlight trackComposite

Composite CompositeLF, flight level,position data

Zebra – Satellite & Grnd Tracks(IMPROVE-II)

Zebra – P3 LF & Ground Trks(MAP)

Capabilities aboard the RAINEX NOAA P-3 aircraft should be the same as those available during the BAMEX Project.

•LF radar packets on aircraft LAN•Project provided computer for radar processing•Project provided processing software

Radar data products

•Preferred data stream in compressed and geo-referenced format for continuous download to Operations Center. This would give the operations folks the most flexibility to prepare a composite image with satellite, aircraft track and annotation. Several considerations here including size of the datastream, practicality for continuous download, etc.•Possible compressed gridded format radar data file of a single 360 sweep from LF radar. Complete gridded file to be downloaded each 5 minutes to the Operations Center.

Need to determine compressed data stream and/or gridded product file size Need to determine real (as opposed to advertised) download rate via satellite system

•Download aircraft position and flight level (selected) data•Install chat and configure for flight scientist use aboard both aircraft

NOAA/AOC Support Requests for RAINEX

Capabilities aboard the RAINEX NRL P-3 aircraft should be the same as those available during the BAMEX Project.

•Position information and selected flight level data to be continuously downloaded to Operations Center

•Chat capabilities to be available for flight scientist use aboard the aircraft.

Other capabilities to aid real time coordination:

•Provide display on the aircraft for the ELDORA scientist position and possibly on the flight deck

•Need to determine real (as opposed to advertised) upload rate via satellite system. (This has a major bearing on the size frequency of image that can be provided to update NOAA LF radar, satellite and flight track composite).

NRL Support Requests for RAINEX(Communications Related)

Data and products to be downloaded from aircraft include:

•All aircraft position,•All aircraft flight level data,•LF radar data in radar format (continuous) or compressed gridded file (~5 minute intervals) from NOAA aircraft

Other data and products include:

•High-resolution GOES in normal or rapid scan mode. •Other special products from various sources (e.g. HRD/NHC)

Products Uploaded to aircraft:

•Satellite/NOAA LF radar composite with completed aircraft track information back 30 minutes and proposed future track of NRL out 30 minutes (including direction and end points) Other annotation including hurricane motion, band rotation and cell propagation information should be included.•Other general information including cell/band intensification, new growth, etc. via separate schematic diagram or chat•In the absence of LF radar data in the vicinity of NRL, provide satellite image with annotation as noted above.

Operations Center Real time Support Tasks

Summary of Key Communications Issues

• LF radar data availability on NOAA P-3 aircraft LAN• Actual Bandwidth capacities on all aircraft• Interface RAINEX provided computers on NOAA aircraft• Real-time availability of aircraft track information• Transmission of LF geo-referenced data or product to

the operations center• Determination of realistic composite product update rate

08 14 20 02 08 14 20 02 08 14 20 02 08 14 20

RAINEX Mission Planning Process

12 18 00 06 12 18 00 06 12 18 00 06 12 18 00

NHC Operations Tasking

RAINEX Research Support

CARCAH/NHC/HRD Alert (nominal 1300 UTC)48 h ahead

HRD/RAINEXDaily Briefing (1630 UTC nominal)

NOAA/AOC P-3 Aircraft scheduled as needed with single/double crews and special measurement

requirements

Nominal NOAA/AOC G-4 surveillance missions (centered on OO, 12 UTC synoptic times)

HRD/RAINEX Daily Briefing

HRD/RAINEX Daily Briefing

UTC

Local time

(EDT)

NRL P-3Ferry to AOC in Tampa based onAlert timing

NRL operations withP-3 flights (nominal 30 min T/O delay)

FAA alert (nominal)

NRL operation(24 h cycle)

RAINEX Mission Planning Key Considerations

• Alert sequence and lead times for RAINEX proposed operations

• Timing of staging of NRL P-3 to AOC• Flight track planning and updating (radar and

dropsondes)• Departure sequence for NOAA and NRL aircraft• Collaboration on dropsonde mission planning with

NHC/HRD (advanced)• Dropsonde coordination (real-time) • Mission planning process with contingencies in play (e.g.

deployment with Caribbean or Pacific Ocean ops)