Abstract:
The NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (NAMMA)
campaign is a field research investigation sponsored by the Science
Mission Directorate of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA). This mission was based in the Cape Verde Islands, 350 miles off
the coast of Senegal in west Africa. Commencing in August 2006, NASA
... scientists employed surface observation networks and aircraft to
characterize the evolution and structure of African Easterly Waves
(AEWs) and Mesoscale Convective Systems over continental western Africa,
and their associated impacts on regional water and energy budgets. NASA
will also made extensive use of its orbiting satellites (including Aqua,
TRMM, and the recently-launched Cloudsat/CALIPSO) and modeling
capabilities to improve its forecasts and flight plans.
The DC-8 dropsonde system uses an integrated, highly accurate,
GPS-located atmospheric profiling dropsonde, which measures and records
current atmospheric conditions in a vertical column below the aircraft.
The dropsonde instrument is ejected from a tube in the underside of the
DC8 aircraft. As the dropsonde floats to the surface on a parachute, it
continuously measures and transmits via a 400 MHz meteorological band
telemetry link, pressure, temperature and relative humidity, as well as
GPS-based wind formation data, to the receiving system onboard the
aircraft. 
