Convection And Moisture EXperiment - 3

The Convection And Moisture EXperiment (CAMEX) is a series of field research investigations with the overall goal being to study atmospheric water vapor and precipitation processes using a unique array of aircraft, balloon, and land-based remote sensors. The first two CAMEX field studies were conducted at Wallops Island, Virginia, during 1993 and 1995.

The third in the series of CAMEX field studies (CAMEX3) is planned for August - September, 1998. This field campaign will be devoted to the study of hurricane tracking and intensification using NASA-funded aircraft remote sensing instrumentation. The NASA ER-2 and DC-8 are the primary aircraft platforms currently planned for the deployment; however, collaborations with the National Weather Service/Tropical Prediction Center/National Hurricane Center and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Hurricane Research Division are being developed so that actual mission sorties may involve as many as five to six aircraft.

The remote sensing instrumentation to be utilized by NASA during CAMEX3 will yield high spatial and temporal information of hurricane structure, dynamics, and motion. These data, when analyzed within the context of more traditional aircraft, satellite, and ground-based radar observations, should provide additional insight to hurricane modelers and forecasters who continually strive to improve hurricane predictions. The ultimate goal of CAMEX3 is to provide information which could someday assist in decreasing the size of coastal evacuation areas and increasing the warning time for those areas.

MAMS will provide visible and infrared imagery of the hurricane environment. In addition, precipitable water, land/sea surface temperature, and upper tropospheric humidity will be derived from MAMS data from selected ER-2 flights. MAMS will be flying with a new digitizer and data system during CAMEX-3, which allow for 16-bit data in all 12 channels and a backup copy of mission data to be made while in flight. The visible and infrared tables show the planned channel configurations.