Flight notes 10727 RF09 S u m m a r y: Sharp inversion in all parameters. Cloud top approx 600 m, base 400 m; thickening with time. UNIFORM CLOUD FIELD WITH VERY LITTLE DRIZZLE. Seems to me that this is the case with least drizzle, and for that reason perhaps the best to examine how the few areas that did have drizzle did develop. High aerosol concentrations both in and above the BL. This was one factor in supressing drizzle. During the early part of the flight, saw no evidence for entrainment events in radar echoes. In latter part, yes, and in same period lwc had sharp downward spikes. Seat of the pants turbulence also increased. Overall, very good cloud physics and chemistry documentation. Comparisons with other cases (RF06 for other small domain flight, and RF08 for other daytime flight) will be useful. 1157L ; 1857 Z -- starting engines 1900 -- T/O 1902 -- data system lockup 1910 -- oly camera time readjusted - was 6 minutes behind. 1912 -- data system back up 1924 -- over discontinuity in cloud deck; photo; echo appears to have weakened 1928 -- spp100 cycled; no go 1929 -- tail wind at this level (5 km) 1929 -- 5230 m al rad altimeter, 16 kft on cockpit altimeter, palt is 4940 m 1937 -- weak, broken cloud layer; cellular 1942 -- talked to Bjorn; no change; confirms that we are over weak area; better further W 1947 -- lidar shows cloud top of ~500 m. 2000 -- in descent; photos, hazy at flight level 2008 -- winds changing to N 2015 -- start soundings 2018 -- bl winds 350/6 2027 -- last sndg 2043 -- first oval, 1092 m rad; 3500' altimeter 2054 -- wind is now indicated as 358/7; was 020/10 on the reverse leg 2057 -- drift calc not working out; wind reading fishy?? 2108 -- recalc with decimal input seems OK; second oval was started with the original RP (32:42 122:37.7) 2113 -- turn to end 2nd oval; going for updated RF,with same 175 hdg 2117 -- start of last oval winds are indicates as 035/3 2131 -- to revised position 31:32.4 / 122:35.7 and down to 1900' 2132 -- start snake; some echo to sfc at about 0 dBZ, radalt 570 m; 0.4 gm-3 2139 -- out of cloud at end of run; go down 50' 2140 -- leg 2 down another 50' to 1800', 528 m 2146 -- lwc up, so is Z 2155 -- lwc pretty uniform, at least no breaks; fluct. 0.1, Z much more 2158 -- more shafts to the ground 2205 -- large 270; down to 1300' 2209 -- another lwc and Z increase region 2220 -- up 100' to 1400' 355 m 2222 -- some virga; weak 2224 -- up in lwc and Z 2230 -- restarted drift with 340 winds 2234 -- last leg had good correlation between lwc and Z on scale of about a kilometer; wavelike 2241 -- ditto !! 2242 -- going below cloud base 2303 -- end of 270 turn; current position is 31:15.5 / 122:15.7 ; my pointer is saying 31:17.9; 122:17.9 >> actual drift is more in lat less in lon .. changes in wind ?? 2313 -- will end this first part with 180 climb to 5000', then do the soundings along a W heading in order to move further W. If echoes are stronger there, we'll stay, if not move back to look for temporal change. 2315 -- the surface leg was pretty smooth - little turbulence 231705 -- start soundings 2324 -- weak cloud echoes; tiny spots of -5 or -10 dBZ 2331 -- looked further W and found the same 2341 -- a well defined echo zone at 31:12.9 / 122:59.4; returning to it with 270 turn 2352 -- back at the RP, still good echo there; started 6-min leg 0006 -- entr event between light drizzle zones 0020 -- very weak echoes; cloud only 0023 -- at 1900' 570 m bumpy, 0.4 gm-3; some drizzle at N end , i.e. the start of the leg 0035 -- there seem to be more downward spikes in the lwc, and the seat is a little more jumpy 0041 -- the wind indications are not consistent between legs; pilots are also concerned about the values they see; 0044 -- seem closer to cloud top, yet lwc is less spiky 0052 -- virga a little more pronounced and deeper 0055 -- large 270 and descent to 420 m 1400' 0057 -- agree with polits that RP is not reliable; going by a/c procedure turns 0100 -- lwc shows no spikes downward; variation is smoother than near CT 0109 -- N-bound leg; bumpiness remains noticeable; virga just barely beyond min distance; small regions go well below 0121 -- no echoes beeyond dead zone 0123 -- some now; lwc up a little 0126 -- last in cloud leg, will go to 1000' for next set 0134 -- start down in the turn 0144 -- as before, CCN and all other aerosol indicators are high 0158 -- last westbound leg, then one more, then JLB roller-coaster incloud on the way home 0211 -- down to sfc then roller-coaster 1000'-2100' 0221 -- level 2500' 0230 -- soundings show pretty good uniformity in base ht but more variation in CT. 0240 -- cloud echo only; quite uniform, max at top, some breaks 0247 -- to 4000' 1285 m; lidar plus radar plus MCR 0305 -- climb for approach; finito 0319 -- 2280 m; clouds are getting weaker. wind has changed some time back from N to S Byron noted good CO2 anticorrelation between isotopes as we did the cloud porposing. just geting dark out large open areas here, just S of ...island, then another patch further on. warming is quite strong , 2300 m alt. 0342 L/D