System-relative distribution of atmospheric soundings obtained during BAMEX

447 atmospheric soundings were obtained from dropsondes deployed during the Bow Echo and MCV Experiment (BAMEX). The Learjet 35A aircraft provided a highly mobile platform that gave the ability to sample mesoscale features of propagating convective systems for up to three hours at a time. Several mesoscale convective vortices (MCVs) and mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) were sampled at various stages of development during BAMEX.

The authors will summarize the distribution of dropsondes relative to the position of the target MCS or MCV and offer a brief evaluation of the sampling strategies. For example, did the Learjet successfully probe regions that were especially important to advancing our scientific knowledge of bow echoes and MCVs, and were the dropsondes distributed effectively? For the dropsonde composites, the dropsonde earth-relative position will be remapped to a coordinate system following the convective system. This should elucidate areas that were adequately sampled and highlight potentially observation-deficient regions. The authors will present some of the lessons learned so future aircraft-oriented field projects can build upon Bamex's success.