1999 EARTH SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| KWAJEX RESOURCE TAPE | G99-075 | 12/13/99 | 00:55:53 | The Kwajalein Experiment (KWAJEX) is a field campaign carried out as part of the U.S.-Japan Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, home to the U.S. ArmyÕs Kwajalein Missile Range. The purpose of KWAJEX and other validation sites around the world includes extensive efforts to validate the measurements of TRMM. KWAJEX is unique in that it is the only one to be conducted over the open, tropical ocean, as the atoll islands are too small to make their own weather. Data is being collected in many ways via the TRMM satellite, airborne balloons, a tethered sonde, profilers, buoys, rain gauges, a NOAA surface ship, three aircraft that record data from different parts of storm clouds, Doppler Radar, and other instruments.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): FLY-IN MAP OF KWAJALEIN
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| ITEM (2): GRAPHIC OF KWAJALEIN ATOLL
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| ITEM (3): WATER CYCLE ANIMATIONS - Three quarters of the sunlight that hits our planet is absorbed by water in the tropics. Some of that energy is transferred into the atmosphere by evaporation where water vapor condenses, forms clouds, and may eventually through the transformation of the vapor into water, fall as rain. The circulation winds in this global atmosphere distribute that energy throughout our planet, and even though scientists are taking their measurements in the Tropics, the data collected is actually useful information about energy distribution around virtually the whole planet.
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| QUAD-BOX, PULL OUT TO TRMM
ITEM (4a): TRMM ANIMATION -The TRMM mission, a joint U.S.-Japanese mission, is the first Earth Science mission dedicated to studying tropical and subtropical rainfall. Tropical rainfall, that which falls within 35 degrees north and 35 degrees south of the equator, comprises more than two-thirds of global rainfall. TRMM was launched on No. 27, 1997, from the Japanese Space Center, Tanegashima, Japan.
ITEM (4b): INTERVIEW WITH ED ZIPSER, TRMM LEADER, FIELD CAMPAIGN
ITEM (4c): INTERVIEW WITH SANDRA YUTER, PROJECT SCIENCE COORDINATOR
ITEM (4d): INTERVIEW WITH ALAN NELSON, TRMM PUBLIC OUTREACH MANAGER
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| QUAD-BOX, PULL OUT TO PLANE
ITEM (5a): DAILY OPERATIONS PLANNING MEETING - While a storm approaches, the scientists, pilots, coordinators, and others attend the daily KWAJEX meeting. Status reports come from S-band radar, the ship called the Ron Brown, and surface sites. TodayÕs decision will be made to fly three aircraft into the turbulent clouds.
ITEM (5b): AIRCRAFT SANDWICH AND THE TRMM SATELLITE ANIMATION - The three aircraft fly in a sandwich formation with the DC-8 at the top of the clouds, the Conviar making measurements at the middle of the cloud in the ice region, and the Citation getting measurements at the lower level. The formation takes great planning, both for safety and timing, as the three aircraft fly in close proximity and at different speeds, requiring frequent communication between pilots. The ground track of the TRMM satellite passes within 250 km of Kwajalein radar approximately 22 times per month. The optimum scenario would be to have the three planes and the satellite lined up and collecting data from the same vertical position.
ITEM (5c): INTERVIEW WITH SANDRA YUTER, PROJECT SCIENCE COORDINATOR
ITEM (5d): DC-8 B-ROLL -TRMM satellite overpasses coinciding with precipitation in the area are rare, so the NASA DC-8 flies with radar and microwave instruments onboard, which are similar to those on the TRMM satellite. Thus it is able to simulate overpasses, while making measurements at the very top of the cloud.s Scientists take data readings as the plane dips and rises through the storm cloud. The DC-8 flies between 35,000 and 42,000 feet.
ITEM (5e): DC-8 CONTROL ROOM BACK ON KWAJALEIN
ITEM (5f): INTERVIEW WITH ED ZIPSER, TRMM LEADER, FIELD CAMPAIGN
ITEM (5g): CITATION "B" ROLL - The Citation is the smallest of the three planes and takes measurements from within the middle of the cloud, between 20,000 and 33,000 feet. The plane is small and full of scientific instruments too tight for an extra passenger to ride along. One of the instruments, located on the wing of the plane, takes thousands and thousands of images.
ITEM (5h): U.S. CONVAIR 580 "B" Roll - While the scientific instruments collect their data, temperatures within the plane rise and fall as the Convair flies anywhere between 500 feet to 15,000 feet, back-and-forth within a cloud. On certain occasions the plane spirals within a cloud to follow the same grouping of molecules and captures images as the ice changes to snow, and then to raindrops.
ITEM (5i): INTERVIEW WITH ED ZIPSER, TRMM LEADER, FIELD CAMPAIGN
ITEM (5j): "B" ROLL OF CLOUD PARTICLE IMAGES
ITEM (5k): INTERVIEW WITH BRAD BAKER, KWAJEX SCIENTIST
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| QUAD-BOX, PULL OUT TO BALLOON
ITEM (6a): UPPER AIR SOUNDINGS - Land-based soundings are taken simultaneously from the islands Kwajalein, Roi-Namur, Meck, Lae, and Wona within the Kwajalein Atoll. Tethered balloons and released balloons take measurements from the lower atmosphere, but readings also come from the meteorological tower; a vertically pointing Doppler system and from the ship The Ron Brown.
ITEM (6b): "B" ROLL OF INSTRUMENTS THAT GATHER LAND-BASED DATA - Vertical profilers are instruments that direct a tall, narrow beam of electromagnetic energy high into the atmosphere. There are two different types - a smaller antenna that measures a small wavelength, and one larger antenna that measures a larger wavelength. Different wavelengths provide different data, but the combination give us even more when we can compare them. Rain gauges measure collected rain water on various islands within the atoll and students measure the size and shapes of the raindrops.
ITEM (6c): INTERVIEW WITH ALAN NELSON, TRMM PUBLIC OUTREACH MANAGER
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| QUAD-BOX, PULL OUT TO SHIP
ITEM (7a): "B" ROLL OF THE RONALD H. BROWN, NOAA SHIP - The Ronald H. Brown is a state-of-the-art oceanographic and atmospheric research vehicle and the largest vessel in the NOAA fleet. It was named to honor the late Secretary of Commerce, Ronald H. Brown, who died in a plane crash in Bosnia in 1996. The ship carries out various experiments and collects data in support of the KWAJEX project. It stayed out at sea during the experiment with only four days in port for re-supply, re-staffing, and shore leave.
ITEM (7b): ACOUSTIC MICROPHONE "B" ROLL - By simply listening and recording measurements of rain on the ocean surface can be made. This new science is called acoustical oceanography. This audio track is "written" to a computer and changes the audio to a frequency domain, thus enabling scientists to gather rain data. Rain has very specific sound characteristics when recorded underwater. Small and large drops make distinct sounds, the impact of the drop hitting the water and a second underwater tone. Medium size drops simply make the sound of the impact with no secondary underwater tone. Jeffrey Nysteun, a scientist onboard the NOAA ship, places an acoustical microphone into the tropical ocean.
ITEM (7c): RAINDROPS GENERATING SOUND ANIMATIONa) Small Drop - As small raindrops falls into the water creating a tiny bubble that rings like little bell and when recorded, sounds like a hiss. The following animation is first simulated as real-time, and then slowed down to demonstrate the distinct sound of impact and the subsequent ring of the higher frequency level of the small drops. b) Medium Drop - A medium-sized drop falls into the water, but makes no secondary underwater sound. c) Large Drop - A large raindrop falls into the water creating a bubble that rings like a bell, which has a gurgling sound when recorded. The following animation of a larger raindrop is first simulated as real-time, and then slowed down to demonstrate lower frequency "ring" of the large drop.
ITEM (7d): AUDIO RECORDINGS OF RAINDROPS: a) Underwater audio recording of small raindrops. A high frequency "hiss" is apparent. This is the sound of drizzle.
b) Underwater audio recording of large raindrops. Listen for "smacks" from their impact with lower frequency bubbles which gurgle.
ITEM (7e): ACOUSTICAL DATA IS TAKEN FROM A WATER TANK - Acoustical data is also collected from the island of Legan. A simple water tank on this lonely island holds another acoustical microphone. A scientist removed the microphone's computer and prepares to download the recorded data.
ITEM (7f): INTERVIEW WITH JEFFREY NYSTEUN, SENIOR OCEANOGRAPHER
ITEM (7g): "B" ROLL OF CLOUDS, STORMS AND RAIN
ITEM (7h): KWAJALEIN ISLAND AND KWAJALEIN ATOLL "B" ROLL
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