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<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">FROM: <br>
John Helsdon <br>
</span></font><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">South Dakota
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Mines</st1:placename></st1:place>
and Technology<br>
<br>
</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Dear Colleague,<o:p><br>
</o:p>As you are probably aware, the NSF/SD School of Mines &
Technology T-28 Storm Penetrating Aircraft was recently retired from
service.
This retirement leaves a gap in our observational capabilities in many
areas related to storm structure and evolution. In order to address
this
issue, the NSF and the SD School of Mines & Technology are
sponsoring a
Next-Generation Storm Penetrating Aircraft Workshop. The workshop
announcement and registration information are included below. Please
consider attending the workshop and contributing to the discussion of
the
Next-Generation Storm Penetrating Aircraft. If you cannot attend, but
wish
to contribute to the report to NSF, instructions are also provided
below.<o:p></o:p></span></font><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span
style="font-size: 14pt;"><br>
</span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span
style="font-size: 14pt;">Next-Generation Storm
Penetrating Aircraft Workshop<o:p></o:p></span></font></b><st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span
style="font-size: 14pt;"></span></font></b></st1:city></st1:place><st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><b><font size="4"><span
style="font-size: 14pt;"><br>
</span></font></b></st1:city>Rapid City, <st1:state w:st="on">South
Dakota</st1:state></st1:place>: 23-25 October
2006<o:p></o:p>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p>The armored T-28 Storm Penetrating
Aircraft, operated by the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">South
Dakota</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place>
of Mines & Technology
(SDSM&T) as a lower atmospheric research facility under a
cooperative
agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF), retired from
active
service in 2005. The last T-28 research mission was to measure
lightning-produced NO in the cores of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state
w:st="on">Oklahoma</st1:state></st1:place>
thunderstorms in the summer of 2003. For the last 35 years, the T-28
was
active in many field projects focusing on thunderstorm processes. Its
retirement leaves a significant hole in observational capabilities in
this
area.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p>A Storm Penetrating Aircraft (SPA)
Workshop held in 1999 identified a
number of science objectives that would benefit from the availability
of an SPA
with greater altitude, endurance and payload capabilities than those of
the
T-28. Discussions at that workshop, and later engineering
investigations,
identified the Fairchild A-10 (”Warthog”) as the prime candidate
for the Next Generation SPA. The A-10 would present much higher
altitude
capabilities (~40 kft), payload capacity (up to 6000 lbs internal and
more than
10,000 lbs external), and on-station time (3-4 hours). It now appears
that access to an A-10 through a joint working arrangement with CIRPAS
at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Naval</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Postgraduate</st1:placename> <st1:placetype
w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place> will become
available in a couple of years. To assist in planning the instrument
payload and aircraft modifications needed to convert the A-10 into an
SPA, the
NSF and SDSM&T will convene a workshop in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city
w:st="on">Rapid City</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">SD</st1:state></st1:place>
to establish the capabilities desired for the Next-Generation Storm
Penetrating
Aircraft. The A-10's low altitude capabilities, and its gun bay that
could house several thousand pounds of downward-looking remote sensing
equipment, would allow it to support other kinds of missions in
addition to the
SPA role.</span></font><font color="blue" face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: blue;"> </span></font>The
dates for the workshop are 23-25 October (Monday-Wednesday) 2006, with
the
workshop starting and ending at noon on the respective days. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p>The purpose of the workshop will
be to assemble a diverse group of
interests from many areas of the atmospheric and related sciences to
discuss
the utility of the Next-Generation SPA to further research in these
areas. The main result of the workshop will be a report to NSF
outlining
proposed experimental objectives, and the platform capabilities and
necessary
instrumentation for such experiments. This report will help the NSF
decide what resources to dedicate to support the acquisition and
modification
of an A-10, to function as the Next-Generation SPA.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p>If you are interested in seeing
the Next-Generation SPA come to
fruition, please plan to attend the workshop and participate in
developing the
material for the report (partial travel support will be available for a
few key
participants). To register for the workshop, and obtain further
information go to the following URL:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><a
href="http://www.hpcnet.org/learn/professional/SPAConference"
title="http://www.hpcnet.org/learn/professional/SPAConference">http://www.hpcnet.org/learn/professional/SPAConference</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p>If you cannot attend, but wish to
contribute to the content of
the report, please contact John Helsdon (<a
href="mailto:john.helsdon@sdsmt.edu"
title="mailto:john.helsdon@sdsmt.edu">john.helsdon@sdsmt.edu</a>) with
ideas
related to how you would envision using the Next-Generation SPA for
research in
atmospheric science, and any related specific SPA requirements of your
research.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"><o:p></o:p>John
Helsdon<o:p></o:p><br>
Chair of the Faculty and Professor<o:p></o:p><br>
Institute of Atmospheric Sciences<o:p></o:p><br>
SD <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Mines</st1:placename></st1:place>
and Technology<o:p></o:p></span></font><br>
<st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on"><font color="navy"
face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">501 E. St.
Joseph St</span></font></st1:address></st1:street><font color="navy"
face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">.<o:p></o:p></span></font><st1:city
w:st="on"><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"><br>
Rapid City</span></font></st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">SD</st1:state>
57701-3995</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Susan Friberg
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)
Office of Corporate Affairs
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, Colorado 80307
Tel. 303.497.1658
Fax 303.497.1654
</pre>
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