Communications and Mission Planning
Considerations for Hurricane Rainband
and Intensity Experiment (RAINEX)
James A. Moore, Jose Meitin, Richard Dirks
UCAR/Joint Office for Science Support (JOSS)
Boulder, Colorado
RAINEX Planning Meeting
Miami, FL
http://www.joss.ucar.edu/
15-17 November 2004
RAINEX Real time Communications Overview
VHF
radio
Satcom
Satcom
Satcom
LF, satellite
Flight track
Composite
Operational Products
Satellite Imagery
Model Products
Surface Observations
RECON obs
Composite
LF, flight level,
position data
Composite
RAINEX Operations Center
HRD Products
Composite Generation
Ops. Coordination
Science Director
Facility Status
Zebra analyses
Forecast
Field Catalog
Model Analysis
RSMAS
Phones
Internet
NCAR, NOAA,
Rest of the World
Phones, Internet, FTP
NHC Products
Zebra – Satellite & Grnd Tracks
(IMPROVE-II)
Zebra – P3 LF & Ground Trks
(MAP)
NOAA/AOC Support Requests for RAINEX
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
NRL Support Requests for RAINEX
(Communications Related)
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)
.
Operations Center Real time Support Tasks
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.
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
RAINEX Mission Planning Process
NHC
Operations
Tasking
NOAA/AOC P-3 Aircraft scheduled as needed with
single/double crews and special measurement
requirements
CARCAH/NHC/HRD Alert
(nominal 1300 UTC)
48 h ahead
FAA alert
(nominal)
Nominal NOAA/AOC G-4 surveillance missions
(centered on OO, 12 UTC synoptic times)
12
18
00
06
12
18
00
06
12
18
00
06
12
18
00
UTC
08
14
20
02
08
14
20
02
08
14
20
02
08
14
20
Local
time
(EDT)
HRD/RAINEX
HRD/RAINEX
HRD/RAINEX
Daily Briefing
Daily Briefing
Daily Briefing
(1630 UTC
NRL operations with
nominal)
NRL operation
P-3 flights (nominal 30
NRL P-3
(24 h cycle)
RAINEX
Ferry to AOC in min T/O delay)
Research
Tampa based on
Support
Alert timing
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)