On February 3, scientists boarded a NASA flight headed
straight first snowstorm the kind of weather both pilots and
passengers typically like to avoid. But this flight was all
in the name of science, specifically the IMPACTS mission
or investigation of microphysics and precipitation for Atlantic
Coast threatening snowstorms. The team is tracking snowstorms
across the Midwest and eastern United States with two
aircrafts, a P3 equipped with multiple instruments operated by
scientists and a high altitude flying ER-2 crewed by one pilot.
They're looking to better understand the formation and
development of winter storms.
So our goal is to observe and measure winter storms that
mostly that happen along the east coast of the United States.
On this specific flight we are flying over a really major
winter storm that is affecting the Midwest as well as tomorrow
is going to go into the Northeast.
Ultimately, what the impacts team learns about snowstorms
will improve meteorological models and our ability to use
satellite data to predict how much snow will fall and where.
For today's flight it's been almost unnervingly smooth so far
at all altitudes. We're dealing with a lot of crosswinds and
changing winds, particularly as we move up and down the track
across the frontline.
The inflight team members work in conjunction with ground
operations, monitoring, changing weather conditions and
coordinating flight paths with the other aircraft. On this
flight, the P3 flew a total of eight hours flying the same
200-mile stretch of snowstorm three times each at a different
elevation in order to capture data from precipitation as it descends.
Especially in turbulent cloud, turbulent storm, ice particles
that form at certain temperatures, certain altitudes.
So right now we're actually seeing a lot of plate
aggregates. So we have a lot of not individual plates that I'm
seeing but mostly just large plate aggregates.
The multi year impacts campaign is the first comprehensive study
of snowstorms across the eastern United States in 30 years.