HIAPER Mission: The following types of patterns would apply if taking off locally for continental mid-latitude studies or from another base for tropical studies. The experiment is best done in conjunction with another aircraft making measurements similar to HIAPER in the boundary layer and at mid-levels and with a fore-aft scanning Doppler radar to characterize the chemical, aerosol, electrical, thermodynamic and wind conditions as was successfully done in the STERAO-Deep Convection Experiment. Surface multi-parameter Doppler radars, sounding and lightning mapping systems would also be used. A high altitude aircraft flying above HIAPER would also be desirable.
The HIAPER payload would include new and hopefully reduced size instruments for reactive chemical species and tracer measurements, microphysical, aerosol and cloud forming nuclei probes, wind measurement systems, radiometers (perhaps frequency scanning as well as fixed), electric field and field change measurements, absorption spectrometers such as Susan Solomon has used, and other instruments better defined by others.
HIAPER would take off and proceed to the experimEntal area before deep convection developed. Large diameter spiral soundings would be made upwind of where convection is anticipated from near the surface to above the tropopause or as high as operationally realistic. When possible penetrations of clouds in the developing stage would be made to document the microphysical structure of that region. After the storm matured the anvil outflow would be investigated using a combination of spirals and repeated, stepped penetrations at constant altitude. The spirals and penetrations would extent from below the anvil to above the visible anvil with some near the storm core and others are larger distances from the core. HIAPER would continue to follow the storm anvil with spirals, repeated penetrations and sometimes long legs away from the anvil throughout the active stage of the storm and for a few hours after the decay of active convection. Depending upon specific goals determined for that flight, passes could also be made above the tops of shallower storms to examine the radiative properties of the core and anvil. Some flights might be extended past nightfall to investigate altered chemistry at night and also electrical conditons above the storm during periods when sprites and blue jets were occurring. Flights would be 8 to 10 hours duration depending upon the lifetime of the convection.