Weather Briefing and Flight planning

CAIPEEX Bengaluru mission

Date : 3 July 2009

1. Debriefing of 2 July flight: Two flights were conducted to check the performance of the
CDPs. The first flight was taken at 11.30 towards south with Agni CDP. The flight was
conducted for 40 minutes. The Agni CDP did not work. The second flight had Isreal CDP. The
morning cirrus overcast blocked the solar heating. The vertical development of the clouds was
affected. The flight take off was delayed by 30 minutes because of confusion of AOR with ATC.
30 km north of Bangalore found cloud cluster, which was penetrated and studied.

2. Weather conditions: Many stations on the west coast reported heavy rainfalls. Chief rainfall
amounts are: Mapusa-30 cm,Pernem-28 cm,Ponda-18 cm,Honawar-18 cm, Karwar-17 cm,
Agumbe-18 cm. This indicates that the west coast trough was active on previous day.
The isobar at surface are showing typical monsoon orientation. A low pressure are of 998 hPa is
seen over land near to Head bay of Bengal.
Yesterday’s RS/RW observations showed RH more than 90% reaching to 500 hPa level.
Low level convergence overlain by upper level divergence is observed over the west coast
region. The stream line convergence at 925 and 850 hPa level has been found over central India
and east India.
The wind shear shows maximum value of 100 over the Arabian sea.
Summerizing weather conditions: The monsoon circulation is well established. The west coast
trough is active. Convergence at lower levels over central part of the country.

3. Forecast: The heavy rainfall activity over the west coast. Widespread medium intensity (1-2
cm) over most parts of country. The clouds with deep vertical growth will be found over west
coast. The clouds with moderate vertical growth will be found over rain shadow area.

4. Flight Decision: The structure of the west coast trough and microphysical characteristics of
clouds formed in the west coast trough have been mysteries to the Indian meteorologists. The
earlier attempts in the MONEX 1979 and ARMEX 2002, could not bring out the information
because of lack of instrumented aircraft. It is an golden opportunity to study the features as every
thing is available. This has been one of the objectives described in the science plan.

With this view, the flight is planned to go to west towards Arabian Sea at 12.00 hrs. Return to
Bangalore at 16.00 hrs.

Dr. J. R. Kulkarni
Program manager
CAIPEEX, IITM, Pune