Mar 2: Transit
Wake Island to Guam.
The C130
left the day before to provide support for the DC-8 that had flown
directly from Kona to Guam and possibly position itself for getting
in early at Hong Kong (HK) to obtain badges before the office closed
for the weekend. Because of ongoing last minute questions from Peking the final
authorization for landing in HK was held up and that flight was
put on hold.
Flight 7 Summary – Wake Island to Guam transit
This flight was planned to evaluate the southernmost
extent of outflow influencing the central North Pacific. This was to be accomplished through an in-progress wall flown
due west to find any pollution layers, a constant altitude leg
due south between 19N and 10N latitude to observe the transition
from Asian influence to tropical conditions, and another in-progress
wall into Guam sampling clean tropical air.
Results:
Evidence of Asian outflow on the in-progress
wall heading east from Wake Island was not compelling in terms
of CO, but a layer of elevated NOy and ozone was located at 18Kft. Flying
at this altitude on the southbound leg revealed a distinct transition
to cleaner conditions around 13.5N latitude. Despite
this transition, the in-progress wall into Guam was not dramatically
cleaner than conditions flying out of Wake Island further to the
north.