CRYSTAL-FACE  
Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers - Florida Area Cirrus Experiment
Test flights: Houston, TX May 2002
Mission: Key West,  Florida July 2002

CRYSTAL-FACE was a measurement campaign designed to investigate tropical cirrus cloud physical properties and formation processes.  Understanding the production of upper tropospheric cirrus clouds is essential for the successful modeling of the Earth’s climate.
The mission occurred during the month of July, 2002 in the Florida region, with aircraft integration taking place during May, 2002 in Houston, Texas. 

Integration and test flights at Ellington Field in Houston, TX Chris Webster, Greg Flesch, Jess Landeros, Ron Howe and Katy Modarress integrated ALIAS on the WB-57 aircraft from May 5-21. although ALIAS has had over 300 flights on the ER-2 aircraft, this was the first mission ever that ALIAS had flown on the WB-57 aircraft, and the first time since 1995 that ALIAS was flown in the spearpod and not the superpod.   It was also the first time flying with the CLH instrument (PI Linnea Avallone) riding piggyback in the pod.  

1. Katy, Greg, and Chris doing integration checks on ALIAS, while Linnea Avallone works on the CLH instrument in the back ground
2. Making sure that all systems are check on the right pod instruments with Chris and Steve
3. Snug fit for ALIAS and CLH
4. The Right-Pod is ready to go! 
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5. The WB57 prepares to leave the hangar for a test flight.
6.  Everyone waits anxiously next to the runway.

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7.  WB57 waits on the runway as the pilots and crew prepare for flight
8.  Success!

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KWNAF (Key West Naval Air Force) Key West, Florida

After returning to Houston on June 20th, we prepared for one last test flight before the ferry flight to Key West on June 29th.

1. The Right-Pod gang is ready to go! (Gannet Hallar, Linnea Avallone, Jess Landeros, Chris Webster, Greg Flesch, Katy Modarress) 
2. The Texas sunrises at Ellington Field will be missed.
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The ALIAS gang flew to Miami and drove from key to key all the way to Key West where we stayed for the next 5 weeks.  Although we stayed in Key West, the KWNAF was located on Boca Chica Key which was about 5 miles east.  The WB57 shared a hangar with the ER-2, Proteus, Twin Otter, and Citation aircrafts (5).  The P3 aircraft also participated in the mission and was located in a separate hangar.

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6. The A-Team (Katy Modarress, Jess Landeros, Chris Webster, Philip Webster, Greg Flesch) takes a quick pose in front of the WB57.  Philip Webster (a student at Cal Poly SLO) joined us for a week to help tame the beast known as ALIAS.  And a feisty beast she is.
7. ALIAS getting her morning feeding from Phil.

We shared our work area with the rest of the WB57 instrumentation groups.  Below are pictures, from different angles, of where the ALIAS team was stationed (8,9), and more broad views of the whole warehouse-like area we were in (10,11).

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