IMPACTS 2022

Narration: Kathleen Gaeta

Transcript:

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On February 3, scientists

boarded a NASA flight headed

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straight first snowstorm the

kind of weather both pilots and

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passengers typically like to

avoid. But this flight was all

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in the name of science,

specifically the IMPACTS mission

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or investigation of microphysics

and precipitation for Atlantic

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Coast threatening snowstorms.

The team is tracking snowstorms

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across the Midwest and eastern

United States with two

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aircrafts, a P3 equipped with

multiple instruments operated by

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scientists and a high altitude

flying ER-2 crewed by one pilot.

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They're looking to better

understand the formation and

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development of winter storms.

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So our goal is to observe and

measure winter storms that

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mostly that happen along the

east coast of the United States.

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On this specific flight we are

flying over a really major

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winter storm that is affecting

the Midwest as well as tomorrow

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is going to go into the Northeast.

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Ultimately, what the impacts

team learns about snowstorms

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will improve meteorological

models and our ability to use

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satellite data to predict how

much snow will fall and where.

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For today's flight it's been

almost unnervingly smooth so far

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at all altitudes. We're dealing

with a lot of crosswinds and

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changing winds, particularly as

we move up and down the track

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across the frontline.

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The inflight team members work

in conjunction with ground

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operations, monitoring, changing

weather conditions and

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coordinating flight paths with

the other aircraft. On this

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flight, the P3 flew a total of

eight hours flying the same

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200-mile stretch of snowstorm

three times each at a different

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elevation in order to capture

data from precipitation as it descends.

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Especially in turbulent cloud,

turbulent storm, ice particles

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that form at certain

temperatures, certain altitudes.

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So right now we're actually

seeing a lot of plate

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aggregates. So we have a lot of

not individual plates that I'm

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seeing but mostly just large

plate aggregates.

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The multi year impacts campaign

is the first comprehensive study

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of snowstorms across the eastern

United States in 30 years.