Ontario

Joe Munchak is a scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center who specializes in remote sensing of snow. This week he writes from the air in the DC-8 out of Bangor, Maine. Last time I wrote for the GCPEx blog, I was stationed in Barrie, Ontario with the ground team. I’ve since switched hats to that of CoSMIR Instrument Scientist. CoSMIR (Conically Scanning Millimeter Imaging Radiometer) is one of two instruments on the NASA DC-8 which is based out of Bangor, Maine – my home for the past ten days. With CoSMIR and the Airborne Precipitation Radar-2 (APR2), the DC-8 is acting as a simulator for the

Over the weekend, GCPEx had its first large lake effect snow, which put 2 inches down at the CARE site. Chris Kidd, Operations Scientist for GCPEx this week, said in an email, "We were feeling rather poorly done-by at CARE due to the lack of snow there. However, we cheered up as we got back to Barrie [12 miles up the road where the GCPEx team is staying]. About 12+ inches here!" Parking lot at the GCPEx team's hotel in Barrie, Ontario. They were very excited to be buried in a foot of snow. Credit: NASA / Chris Kidd Lake effect snow forms when cold winds pick up moisture and energy as they pass