So we left for Portland at the end of January and got back in mid March.
The project was WSR-08 = Winter Storms Reconnaissance - 2008.
To see pictures of the project click here.
The NOAA aircraft that flew in this project was Kermit. One of our P-3's.
And we were based out of Portland, Oregon this year.
Usually the GIV flies this mission from either Hawaii or Alaska, but the GIV wasn't available because it was supposed to have had a tail doppler radar installed (like the one on the P-3 but to scale for the GIV). Sadly, the tail doppler radar came close to being installed, but in the end had too many issues to be installed at this time. So it's been delayed until later this year (I think).
So we flew a P-3 instead. The P-3 doesn't fly as high as the GIV but nevertheless, some data is better than no data. And typically after a couple of hours (the flights were each at least 8-10 hours long) we were able to get above the 500mb line (~20-21 kft). Which is a standard pressure level for meteorological analysis.
The purpose of this project is to study the storms over the Pacific before they reach the west coast. Often these storms are the parents to the weather that affects all areas of the US. This includes the tornadoes in the mid-west and the nor-easters in the east. The further out into the pacific we can study these storms the better data we have and the better able NWS and NCEP forecasters are able to predict the weather. Sorry, I don't have any data about the success rate of the project. I only know from looking at the model runs myself, that our data did help to tweak the forecasts.
I'd like to say that the project went off without a hitch, but up until March we didn't have too many flights where something didn't break. The plane had just come out of a big upgrade and they didn't leave much time between the upgrade and the project to work out all the problems. Not that they would have been able to anyway because most of them weren't exactly things that anyone could foresee. A hydraulic pump malfunction, the starter on one of the props went out, we hit a bird....yes a very large bird that put a crack in the leading edge of the wing. It seems a fox was hunting on the runway just as we were taking off and scared this bird right into our path. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire on that one ^_^ The plane was down for a week for a temporary repair to get us through the rest of the project. And there were several other problems with both the new systems and old systems that were installed/re-installed. But we made it through and completed the project to the best of our ability.
The weather in Portland was rather interesting for a Florida-dite and a meteorologist such as myself. Yes, it was cold for me. But when I gave it a chance I could surprisingly handle it quite well. Also, there were mountains and large hills. We don't have any of those here in Florida and while I've read about them in books and seen them in pictures it's quite something else to be surrounded by them. (Note: I'm mostly playing on the dramatic here. I have actually been in mountainous and hilly regions before. Back when I was on the ship and we traveled to such places. Even so, this was a different area with a different climate and so resulted in a different experience for me. -end note). ...so where was I? Oh yeah! Mountain weather. For the first time (The weather in Chile was always too nice to really experience it) I saw some very interesting Orographic clouds. Which you can see in the picture above. These are the clouds that form due to air masses being pushed up the side of mountains. Above you can see the winds coming in from the right (I don't remember what direction I was facing when I took the picture) pushing the clouds up and over the mountain. You can even see them dissipating just a bit on the other side.
And touring Portland was great too. It's a very interesting city. A very liberal one I think as well. The first week we were there I was constantly bombarded by hyped up global warming enthusiasts that wanted to take up all my time to tell me that I'm a bad human being for owning a car. They were all over the downtown area. It was very irritating because they displayed no real knowledge of the data they were reporting to be the end all of climatology studies. psh. whatever. There were plenty of architectural wonders and natural beauties to look at to avoid them. If you want to see the pics I took while wandering around Portland they are here. If you ever find yourself there I highly suggest going to the Washington Park. They had nice trails to walk along, a rose garden (sadly, not so many roses the time of year I went), a Japanese garden (which was really cool to walk through), the zoo is there as well as a museum and science center. It's a neat place to explore and is where I spent most of my time when I wasn't working or walking around downtown.
Other things of note:
I got to see Cirque Du Soleil with a step-cousin I'd never met before. We went to see the show Corteo. Which is about the imaginings of a clown wondering about what his death would be like. It was a fantastic show that I recommend going to see.
The transit system in Portland was fun to use. Another thing we don't have in Florida is trolley's. The closest you get to it is at Disney. I spent some of my time off just exploring where the trolley's went. Mostly out into the middle of nowhere, but was still fun. It was another way to meet interestingly weird people. I met one girl in a wheel chair who was originally from the south. She said that when I get back I would have to have a glass of sweet tea for her, because she couldn't get any good sweet tea in Oregon and she missed it. So I had a little toast to her when I got back ^_^ There was also this guy that started to talk to me and was talking about how he dresses (long black hooded coat, black rock tee, and black jeans) often led to people leaving him alone and not going near him. He said he didn't mind because he liked being left alone. He understood neither the irony of his sentence nor that of my silence. Still makes me laugh though ^_^
I also recommend going to Evergreen Aviation. It's where the Spruce Goose is. Words are inadequate to describe how HUGE that thing is. You just have to see it for yourself.
A few of us also toured the NWS office in Portland. Ahh the memories....not more TWEBS!!! hehe (inside joke). ^_~ The office in Portland has both a NWS and a River Forecast Center in it. They were all nice people that let us look at some of their model runs for the next days flight. And I was able to leave with a spare thermograph they had lying around. It'll be displayed at the St. Petersburg museum of history in the "Adventures of NOAA's Ark" exhibit. I'll get it back after the exhibit to play with in the office. Don't get between a geek and her toys now ^_~
That's it for now for Portland. Here's a temporary catchup on things after Portland:
I got a dog - a mini dalmatian named Tao.
I went to pick up the dog one day and did it incorrectly and blew out my back -_-
I've been spending the last 3 months trying to recover my back. I just had surgery on the 6th of June. I'm doing much better now and I'll be back to work in another 2 or 3 weeks. We'll see about flying again much later on. But Dammit, I'll be ready by January for our project in Japan!
There's also the Hurricane season outlook I'll post later as well.
That's it for now.
Later!
