After two days without a flight, today we could finally take off again. The conditions could have been a little better, but that didn’t stop us from flying to continue our research. The forecast was clear – higher clouds than on the first flights, which is why we needed to go up to over 5 km. But before we got on the plane, the group photo of the entire COMPEX-EC crew was on the agenda. A perfect photo on the first try, and we were ready to board the plane.
The EarthCARE track north of Kiruna over the Norwegian Sea was well suited for the day and the planning focused on flying on the track against and with the satellite flight direction. In addition, dropsondes on a regular grid were launched to provide more precise vertical profiles on the way there and back.
Said, done!
The flight went very well with 6 dropsondes and the EarthCARE underflight. We were also able to observe interesting clouds again, including the typical cellular convection pattern of a cold-air outbreak and some showers. As Polar 5 had to stand outside during the nights, frozen water persisted on the windows, but did not stop us from taking pictures of the cloud formations.
After the successful completion of also this research flight, the fifth successful one by the way, the team enjoyed an evening together in the bowling center. The pins were hit just as well as we matched EarthCARE satellite with our flights – Doublestrike! Mika also took part, but clearly had a hard time with the big bowling balls.
Stay tuned, because the campaign is not over yet!