Each morning we have a weather briefing at 0830 where the PIs (Principal Investigators) and Mission Scientists look at the forecast for the current day and tomorrow. Today they had to make a call which of two flight plans to go with – ICE-D cloud flight or SAVEX flight (Sunphotometer Airborne Validation Experiment in Dust). The photo below shows the group examining the different model outputs, and I’m glad to say Clouds won the vote. However, as I write this, once again the only decent clouds are out at 200km range. Fingers crossed more develop closer to us.

17082015_briefing

Front row: Richard Cotton (Met Office), Keith Bower (Uni. of Man.), Phil Brown (Met Office), and Andy Heymsfield (NCAR). Back Row: Paul Field (Met Office, Uni. of Leeds), Alan Blyth (NCAS, Uni. of Leeds) and Martin Gallagher (Uni. of Man)

2015081712573400dBZ

Radar surveillance scan at 0.5 degree elevation. The yellow/orange/red areas indicate moderately active convective clouds that are at least 6-7km deep.