GIFTS EDU Validation
UW-SSEC/CIMSS AERIbago

Date:  6 Sept 2006 (Wednesday)
Crew:  Best, DeSlover, Feltz, Olson, Revercomb, Taylor
Author:  DeSlover
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/gifts/edu

    Weather Conditions:

Warm, persistent uniform thin cirrus, Thunderstorm anvil settled over sit at ~2200 UTC
(4 PM local), mirror was covered after this time.  Precipitation and overcast
conditions are forecast for next two days

    Instrument Status:

AERI-05 recovered from chkdsk without any additional problems after yesterday's crash during the GIFTS CCE event.  The -05 failed around 0200 UTC, about 15 minutes into the 30 minute observation period.  All instruments  are operating nominally today, however 2 sondes failed due to software communication problems.

Note that somebody walked in front of the external mirror from 1829 thru 1844 as engineers were working on the mirror. AERI-05 data was contaminated during this time.

GIFTS:  viewing atmosphere 1927 through 2009 UTC

Sondes (2 of 4 successful):     1633 and 2015  UTC 

Vaisala Temperature Probe Readings:

1730 UTC
AERI-05			30.6% RH,	25.7 C
Midpoint to mirror	29.3% RH,	27.6 C
Mirror			29.9% RH,	27.1 C
AERIbago		21.2% RH,	30.4 C

1921 UTC
AERI-05			29.3% RH,	27.6 C
Midpoint to mirror	29.5% RH,	27.3 C
Mirror			23.0% RH,	31.3 C
AERIbago		19.0% RH,	33.4 C

2018 UTC
AERI-05			28.6% RH, 	28.1 C
Midpoint to mirror	30.1% RH, 	27.6 C
mirror			28.3% RH, 	28.1 C
AERIbago		20.5% RH, 	31.6 C

Science Discussion:

1633 UTC radiosonde launch for check out of AERI's in clear sky condition in 
morning hours.  GIFTS was spooling data from previous nights data collection.

GIFTS atmospheric observations were performed from 1927 UTC (1:27 PM local) to 2009 UTC (2:09
Local), first two radiosondes failed, third was launched successfully at 2014
UTC.  

Radiance calculation vs observation will be performed for both data sets above
thus completing Cross Check Event.

Precipition and extensive cloudiness is forecast for at least the next two days.