Campaign diary on 21 September 2008

Reading e-mails in the morning is a relief, Sinlaku is still alive and the mission is performed as planned. The system moved east a little bit faster than forecast, but we could still reach it. Another 30 min range would have been helpful to really get into the center, but still an interesting mission of a tropical cyclone that has transformed into an extratropical one. The eastern part of the system and the center were mostly cloud free and we expect exciting lidar observations. Finally, the Sinlaku sequence is finished after flying it for more than 10 days, something that has never been done before I think. The success is celebrated with a BBQ in the evening, the fourth one that is missed by Bessho-san, who went home for a couple of days.

The next storm, Hakupit, has developed to the south, but we decided not to fly as no model shows signs of recurvature. Behind it another system (TCS047) has potential to develop into a recurver.

Author: Martin W.