EXPERIMENTAL BLIP EVALUATION

Evaluating empirical Tmax adjustments to experimental Walker Ridge BLIP

Questions or problems can be sent to: Dr. John W. (Jack) Glendening

Submitted pilot observations reporting the maximum height of the usable lift (the height of thermal tops or cloudbase) at Walker Ridge will be used to evaluate the accuracy of the experimental Walker Ridge BLIP, which is obtained by empirically adjusting the maximum surface temperature predicted by the MAPS model.  The adjustment presently used is simply my guess at a reasonable value - pilot reports will be used to alter that empirical adjustment to give better agreement between predicted and actual heights.  At some later time a plot of the predicted vs. observed heights will appear on this page.  Some background on the Walker Ridge BLIP and the present BLIPEX page is available here.

At present only the maximum thermal soaring height at Walker Ridge are to be reported.  Flights in which you did not reach the thermal top (or cloud base) do not evaluate the BLIP and should not be reported. 

To submit a single day's report from this page:

(must be able to email from your browser and have Javascript enabled)
See below for more information on the input fields or if you wish to submit your own email rather than using the Javascript form
 
ENTER WALKER RIDGE FLIGHT REPORTS HERE
(can use tab key to move between fields)
 
PilotID: (max 12 chars, no spaces)
Date: (mm/dd ala "9/31")
Hour: (in 24-hr format, ala "1400" not 2AM)
Height: (in FTmsl - enter 0 for no lift)
 
CHOOSE A LIFT TYPE:
BlueThermal - no cumulus cloud present to aid lift
CloudLift - cumulus lift aided climb but cloudbase not reached
CloudBase - climb limited by cloudbase
 
Avg.ClimbRate:
(optional) 		(in FPM) 1kt=100fpm
Comments:
(optional)
 
THEN CLICK "CREATE EMAIL" BUTTON AND SEND

To submit a report using your own email:

To submit your observations, which can be for multiple flights, create an email to be sent to "postmaster@drjack.info" with "BLIPEX" in the Subject line.  Your data report will be extracted and machine-processed, so correct formatting is important in the body.  The email body should contain one line for each observation, with each line consisting of at least 7 fields, as given below, the fields being separated by at least one space (blank) and with no spaces (blanks) within any field. 

The data fields are (their order corresponds to the Javascript form above):

  1. Header field: "BLIPEX= " (case-insensitive - used to automatically search for a pilot report)
  2. Site name: "WALKER" (case- insensitive - for now this will always be WALKER but I am allowing for an later expansion of the reporting)
  3. Pilot name/identifier: (12 character max, excess characters will be removed)
  4. Date: numerical month/day of the flight
  5. Hour: numerical hour of the flight in 24-hr format (local time - nearest hour is OK)
  6. Maximum Thermalling Height: (in FTmsl)  the thermal top or cloudbase height (use "0" if no lift was encountered)
  7. Lift Type: Enter a two-letter abbreviation (case-insensitive), one of the following three choices
        BT   (BLueThermal) if no cumulus cloud present
        CL   (CloudLift) if cumulus cloud lift aided climb but cloudbase not reached
        CB   (CloudBase) if cloudbase reached
  8. Avg. Climb Rate: (optional) Average glider climb rate in ft/min (1kt=100ft/min)
  9. Comments: (optional) other pertinent information such as the extent/depth/type of clouds or the accuracy of the BLIP W* predictions or the presence of unusual conditions such as a deep marine layer.

FOR EXAMPLE, to report a "blue thermal" climb to 12300 ftMSL without an average climb rate

blipex=  walker  MyName  9/31  1300  12300  bt  Comments on significant factors

OR, to report a climb to a cloudbase at 12300 ftMSL at an average 400 fpm:

blipex=  walker  MyName  9/31  1300  12300  cb  400  Comments on significant factors