NOAA’s G-IV wraps up missions into east Atlantic disturbance

G-IV view of disturbance AL97 on July 10th

As part of the Impact of Targeted Observations on Forecasts-East (ITOFs-East) project project, NOAA’s G-IV jet “Gonzo” has conducted three missions on subsequent days sampling the area of disturbed weather (AL97) and the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) to its north.

Proposed track of the August 11th mission with green dots showing the location of dropsonde releases.

With AL97 decaying, the August 11th mission is simply to release 8 dropsondes in the areas associated with the African easterly wave during the ferry to Barbados. The dropsondes will be released primarily in the dry, SAL portion of the wave, though the first few dropsondes should be released in the moderately moist plume pushing up from the south from the ITCZ on the eastern side of the disturbance.

For more information, contact aoml.communications@noaa.gov.