GIFTS EDU Validation UW-SSEC/CIMSS AERIBago ----------------------- Date: 31 August 2006 CST (Thursday) 0000 - 1200 UTC Location: UW-Madison SSEC Operators: E. Olson, J. Taylor, D. Deslover http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/gifts/edu/ Weather Conditions: Skies cleared by 00 UTC with abrupt PBL drying at ~320 UTC (reference 3 attached images below). This allowed a window of opportunity to cross check radiances between two AERI system, S-HIS, and a radiosonde calculation. Dewpoints gradually increased from 330 - 600 UTC. Checkout was completed about 0630 UTC. Instrument Status: * AERIBago - Nominal * Surface station - Inside Bago so tower data used as a proxy * Ceilometer - working and archiving * AERIbago AERI - archiving properly. * AERI05 - archiving properly * Radiosonde system is working and archiving * S-HIS - nominal * AERIBago time: T + 5 seconds * AERI05 time: T + 5 seconds * S-HIS time: T + 45 seconds 1 launches was completed today 0415 UTC Launch normal, data good Science Discussion: AERI system checkout was conducted. Dramatic drying occurred between 0310-0320 UTC (noted in surface, ceil, and AERI retrievals). All systems were nominal. Datasets available at: ftp://ftp.ssec.wisc.edu/validation/exper/giftsedu/data/ Attachments: Ceilometer xsection, AERIbago AERI summary, surface data, AERI xsections, and radiosonde launch quicklook <20060831_415_ap_new.png>