MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS)

1. Overfly Francistown en route to the Terra overpass of the Sowa Pan MISR ground site (20° 33´ S, 26° 04´ E).

The ER-2 made two flight legs 208 km in length over the Sowa Pan along the orbital inclination of Terra (192.0°), passing over the ground site at ~0845 UTC. The ER-2 then flew over the Maun Tower and proceeded across the Okavango Delta, where it turned and made a series of 6 parallel flight lines mapping out the entire delta region. The final flight leg took it once again over the Maun Tower en route to two sites that were characterized in detail during the Kalahari Transect in March (Okwa River Crossing at 22° 24´ S, 21° 43´ E and Tsane at 24° 09´ S, 21° 54´ E).

The RC-10 camera was turned on for flights over Francistown and Sowa Pan (both flight legs), Maun Tower, the Okwa River Crossing, and Tsane.

N/A

• Sowa Pan (20° 33´ S, 26° 04´ E)
• Maun Tower (19° 55´ S, 23° 36´ E)

The skies were largely cloud free and the visibility quite clear. The pilot noted some fires and burn scars in and around the Okavanga Delta.

The Atlantic High ridged along the south and southeast coast, inducing southeasterlies and partly cloudy conditions. The Indian Ocean High continued to induce southeasterlies over the lowveld and Mozambique, causing partly cloudy skies over these areas. The well-established high over the interior forced another sunny day over the interior.

• AirMISR: not on aircraft; being repaired
• CLS: Lidar worked properly, but navigation data not recorded
• LAS: worked well
• MAS: worked well
• MOPITT-A: worked well
• SHIS: operated in scanning mode; worked well
• SSFR: worked well
• RC-10: worked well