NAWDEX - North Atlantic Waveguide and Downstream Impact Experiment

IOP-1: Go with the flow

The planning of the transfer flights for HALO and FALCON from Munich to Keflavik –scheduled for Thursday and Saturday- started beginning of the week. On Tuesday it already became apparent that there might be a NAWDEX ‘Golden Case’ showing up on Saturday: An upper-level trough was located South of Greenland with a ridge (with warm conveyor belt [WCB] outflow) building up to Iceland and a second trough was over Western Europe - perfect conditions for our airplanes travelling from Southern Germany to Iceland to catch the diabatic butterflies that travel up the WCB and disturb the downstream flow. During the course of the week this synoptic situation became more and more certain and the flight planning team saw the opportunity of turning the transfer flight into the first intensive observation period (IOP). This gave a lucky subset of the 85(!) NAWDEX participants the early opportunity to practice their flexibility (that meant some crew members and onboard scientists spontaneously trying to find accommodation in Munich on the first day of Oktoberfest) and they already got a glimpse of how quickly things can change during the planning-process (and later how rewarding it can be to go with the flow!).
On Saturday the Operation Center was turned fully operative and the first planning meeting took place – which, after the surprising encounter of a Golden Case right at the beginning of the campaign, revealed a very promising and exciting flow development for the coming days. In the early afternoon everyone on site rushed to the airport and bravely resisted the freezing Icelandic winds to welcome the airplanes – which arrived on schedule in the afternoon with satisfied mission scientists that reported on a successful zeroth campaign day.