1. DABEX wash-up meeting
Exeter, March 30th, 2006

2. Hotel accommodation: Good accommodation for personnel:
The Grand Hotel:
Comfortable and clean.
Secure
Some less pleasant rooms (bungalows) were swapped at the beginning of operations.
The terrace served as the main socialising area/meeting area for informal meetings during the day and in the evening.
Only a few personnel reported sick with stomach bugs/flu.
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3. The hotel is centrally located
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4. Terrace:
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5. Hotel and pool:
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6. Good accommodation for:- Flight planning.
Hotel accommodation:
Good accommodation for:-
Flight planning.
The second largest meeting room provided an excellent room for flight planning/briefing/ debriefing. The cost was around £180/day, but is well worth it for the convenience and practicality.
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7. Operations centre: Air conditioning x2 Notice board Floods Flip-charts
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8. Weather boards on the walls:
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9. A massive room is also available (but expensive):
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10. The communications were a problem:
RBGAN system was a godsend
VSAT did not work
1st WiFi link only worked for a few days
2nd WiFi link was excellent and relatively inexpensive (~£500 for three weeks, 256kb/sec)
IRD office provided us with access (keys can be cut for £2/key) as the ultimate back-up.
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11. Microwave WiFi antenna looked as though it might fall down, but never did (maybe more problem in SOP2/3)
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12. Vsat Vsat satellite dish was too small to get a reasonable signal.
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13. FAAM have purchased an RBGAN system.
It is slow (128kb/sec contested ~ 50kb/sec), and expensive (~$5/Mb), but essential if all else fails.
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14. Down sides Be prepared for:-
Power outages that can occur at anytime – sometimes the WiFi links will need resetting. Make sure that you know how to do this. Fuse box is in the room next to the meeting room and sometimes needed resetting.
Make sure that you download and know how to use the RBGAN system. It will work outside or with an aerial (DFL) it will work inside.
Mosquitos! They were a constant nuisance – ensure that the room has the electrical fumigators.
Keys! There is only a single key for the room, which cannot be copied (security type key). Ensure that the last person out drops it with reception.
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15. Operations at the airport:
Only limited use of the airport was made:-
Morning pre-flight briefing was either at the foot of the old control tower or in the ASECNA classroom.
Engineers room.
Toilet.
The rooms on the first floor were in the process of being refurbished, but were not necessary for SOP-0.
Flight plan filing, though the DFL flight planning was done at the hotel.
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16. Engineer’s room
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17. Met Building Toilet Refurbished rooms Engineer’s room Met classroom
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18. The DFL room at the airport (telephone lines were a problem)
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19. The ARM site. Mike has a full set of spares – also a small room which could be used for instrument rectification. Could be very useful.
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20. Problem areas/tips: airport
The president travels a lot and has other presidents round for tea – the AIRPORT CAN CLOSE. There is nothing that you can do about this.
Relations – Mr Boukari and Mr Moumouni can smooth things over for you. We flew both of them, but they may want another flight in summer if possible.
Very few flights in and out of the airfield. The best airport that I’ve ever worked at in terms of access and ease of operations.
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21. Transport: Big hotel bus – the hotel buses were unreliable
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22. Hotel flat bed
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23. Abou (Mr Corpse!) and his dedicated bus ….
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24. Use a dedicated mini-bus driver
Transport tips
Use a dedicated mini-bus driver
Some taxi drivers are very good and inexpensive – e.g. Amadou
The taxi drivers from the hotel are OK to use (more expensive, but reliable and will wait for you for a very modest fee)
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25. Mobile phones
We issued everyone with a mobile phone. Some were on the ASECNA network which means that calls to other phones on the network are free. They save a lot of time and effort.
You’ve got a lot of swapping of staff. Suggest that you periodically clone the SIM and update all of the phones.
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26. MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE THIS MEETING!
Flight plan details
Time (UTC)
Action
Location
0500
Aircraft scientists start final planning (hotel – WiFi)
Hotel
0600
Breakfast and to airport (transport – hotel bus?)
0700
Briefing to the instrument scientists and air-crew
Airport
0900
Bae146 aircraft take off (F20 a little later)
1030
F20 aircraft take off
*TERRA 1030
1400
BAe146 Landing/F20 landing
*AQUA 1330
1430
Debrief
1730
Briefing at hotel for the forthcoming flight.
MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE THIS MEETING!
Niamey Tmax=36C, Tmin=18C.
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27. Flight planning Involved: Cloud (ECMWF forecasts, satellite nowcasts)
Aerosol fields
CAMM mineral dust
NAME biomass burning & mineral dust & specials
AERONET (nowcast)
ECMWF dust product (nowcast in forecast mode)
CHIMERE and LMD-Z model
Satellite overpasses (MODIS, MISR, MOPPITT)
Instrument serviceability
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28. A perfect day for us ……

29. Example of ECMWF forecasts
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30. Aircraft Flight patterns:
Satellites
Replaced by ULA
F20
Free troposphere
BAe146
Overlying dust
ATR-42
Underlying biomass burning aerosol
Surface sites
AMF
CIMELS

31. Radiative closure flights
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33. DABEX: satellite overpasses

34. DABEX flight summary

35. B168 aged biomass
B161 dust and biomass
B166 Nigeria
B166 Nigeria

36. Problem areas/tips: aircraft operations
Air conditioning was extremely effective! Temperature was down to 5-10C on the ground.
The aircraft temperature was a problem continually during the flying – the cabin and front of the aircraft get extremely warm (35C), which is uncomfortable.
The ATC are helpful, but have a limited command of English and a limited radio contact range (HF, VHF) – increases the pilot workload.
Clearances – we failed to get clearance for Burkina, but got clearances for all other airspace. However the ATC in other countries (e.g. Nigeria) are frequently bemused by our operations.
Down days: there’s sensible interpretation of down days and “other’s” interpretation. Make sure that it’s plainly understood that attendance at the evening brief is expected – it’s by far the best way to disseminate information.
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