MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS)

FLIGHT SUMMARY INFORMATION

Flight Track Map

Flight: 00-180
Date: 25 September 2000
Location: South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, and Indian Ocean
Deployment: SAFARI
Principal Investigator: Dr. Michael King (NASA GSFC)
Flight Scientist: Dr. Steven Platinick (NASA GSFC)
Additional Sensors: AirMISR, CLS, LAS, MOPITT-A, S-HIS, & SSFR
Objective: To understand the key linkages between the physical, chemical and biological processes, including human activities, that comprise the southern African biogeophysical system.

Data Evaluation
Overall quality is good

Processing Information
Level-1B Data in HDF format is available
Flight Line Summary
Spectral Band Configuration
Spectral Response Function Table

Browse Imagery
Flight Tracks: 21
Scanlines: 146117

Browse Imagery Table
Click a Flight Track number to view a quicklook image Lat/Lon ranges are for the BEG-END scanline nadir pixels
Flight Track	Time Span (GMT)	Heading (Deg)	Lat Range (Deg North)	Lon Range (Deg West)	Length (scanlines)	Altitude (meters)
1	07:29-07:47	80	22.65-22.28	31.69-33.84	7035	19078
2	07:49-08:15	19	22.20-19.33	33.93-34.58	9999	19617
3	08:15-08:32	11	19.33-17.56	34.58-35.00	6269	19718
4	08:32-08:59	12	17.55-14.68	35.00-35.60	9999	19770
5	08:59-09:14	14	14.68-13.10	35.60-35.94	5456	19834
6	09:15-09:42	73	13.01-12.28	36.02-38.88	9999	19865
7	09:42-09:58	76	12.28-11.81	38.88-40.66	6170	19928
8	10:00-10:27	172	11.91-14.89	40.80-41.07	9999	19836
9	10:28-10:54	207	15.00-17.65	41.06-39.53	9999	19831
10	10:54-11:21	209	17.65-20.27	39.53-37.98	9999	19888
11	11:21-11:48	209	20.27-22.90	37.98-36.34	9999	19956
12	11:48-12:07	212	22.90-24.75	36.34-35.06	7204	19928
13	12:10-12:29	240	25.02-26.07	34.91-32.74	7144	19853
14	12:33-12:42	7	26.11-25.12	32.36-32.46	3387	19838
15	12:44-12:53	271	25.02-24.99	32.35-31.13	3545	19863
16	12:53-13:11	279	24.99-24.63	31.12-28.89	6504	19946
17	13:12-13:34	163	24.74-27.00	28.75-29.33	7916	19899
18	13:36-13:43	313	27.11-26.56	29.13-28.42	2705	19816
19	13:44-14:00	250	26.54-27.03	28.27-26.39	5707	19865
20	14:02-14:05	43	26.89-26.58	26.28-26.56	1320	19899
21	14:05-14:21	47	26.57-25.38	26.57-27.86	5762	19366
Images 01 through 21 in sequence

Flight Summary Report

Author: Steve Platnick
Mission Scientist: Dr. Michael King
ER-2 Pilot: Jan Nystrom
Takeoff: 0700 (UTC)
Landing: 1458 (UTC)
Duration: 7:58 (h:mm)

Objective and Summary:

Underfly Terra northeast through interior Moazambique, up through Malawi, then east to the Mozambique Channel and south down along the coast, to observe aerosol transport through the northeastern section of the SAFARI study region,
Overfly Inhaca Island, Mozambique and the Skukuza tower in Kruger National Park,
Once again, overfly powerplants east of Johannesburg and industrial sites to the south.
This was the final ER-2 science flight. No in situ aircraft were operating.

RC-10 photography was acquired over the two ground sites, the industrial/power plant legs, and various points of opportunity in Mozambique (smoke plume across ER-2 track at 0748 UTC, coastal areas at 0955, 1204 UTC).

Key Flight Legs:

The ER-2 flight track through central Mozambique was directly underneath and oriented with Terra (19° 42´ S, 34° 30´ E; 0814 UTC, 12° inclination). Skies were clear through most of the Mozambique legs with some clouds to the northern part of the country, and a band of scattered low cloud near the time of the Terra overpass. The coastal run was predominantly clear sky wind some undercast scenes. The return tracks over Inhaca Island (1227 UTC) and Skukuza (1255 UTC) were clear. A fire was observed close to the tower site, with its smoke merging with another plume from farther away. On an unprecedented fourth attempt, flight legs over the power plants and industrial sites (now known as the Annegarn run) were reported to be predominantly clear with an estimated 10% cloud cover.

Highlights:

A successful repeat of ER-2 mission 4 (24 August, sortie no. 00-150) where MAS only worked intermittently.

AERONET sites and features overflown during this mission: