NOAA P-3 Mission Summary Report (EPIC)

ITCZ mission(8hrs) plus intercomparison with C130 on route to
93W,12N. 3 five-minutes legs were flown wing to wing by 
both aircrafts: 
1) 600ft   155530 -- 160030 UTC
2) 6000ft  160940 -- 161440  UTC
3) 13000ft 162700 -- 163200 UTC
Mark time indicated that WP3 was 1 sec behind C130.

After the intercomparison the WP3 flew the usual lawn-mower 
pattern in the box 8-12 N 93-97 W. We deployed 45 AXBT (6 fail), 
and 15 GPS-dropsondes (winds fail in 2 of them, however winds from 
one of these sondes showed up just before splashing.) These two
failures occurred at the grid point 97W 10N -- no further backup
was launched.  GPS sondes were dropped only at 12, 10, and 8 North 
along the N-S segments. An extra dropsonde was also launched at 
96.6W,8N.

The Doppler velocities were uncorrelated in some segments.
The  rest of the instruments seemed to work well.

Surface winds were very light, typically between 2 and 4
m/s. They shift from north-easterlies to south-westerlies
between 10 and 8 N.  Flight level winds were primarily 
easterlies (10 to 15 m/s).

We find two lines NE-SW just south of 93W,12N.
Widespread zones of stratiform clouds were encountered to 
the south of the pattern. Some strong cells were embedded 
in these regions. However the dominant clouds were stratus 
(10 km height), and shallow cumulus (1km height). We also 
encountered convective cells in the north-central part of 
the pattern typically aligned in NE-SW lines.