WEBVTT

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Also with us today is Captain Paul Lucyk, the weather officer for the NOAA-N launch. Thanks for joining us, Captain.

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Thank you, Tiffany. It's great to be here.

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Can you please tell us how the weather is looking for launch day? Explain how it affects NASA's decision to launch.

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Sure, I'd be glad to. On the night of launch, my weather team and I will monitor multiple

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constraints throughout the count.

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Several of these constraints are established to protect the vehicle against natural and triggered

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lightening and also monitor constraints for precipitation which could damage the vehicle during

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the ascent and fly-out, as well as surface winds that are essential for the safety of tower rolls, fueling and lift off.

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Now, if any of these constraints are violated, NASA, along with the 30th Space Wing and Boeing,

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will establish either a hold or a potential scrub.

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Looking at our satellite imagery, I can talk a little bit about the forecast. We have a low

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pressure system just off to the northeast corner of California and into the southeastern of Oregon.

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That low pressure system brought a frontal system through here this morning, and behind that

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frontal system, we have high pressure building in. That high pressure is going to serve to

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tighten our pressure gradient and allow our winds to increase throughout the day tomorrow,

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afternoon and into tomorrow evening. That is going to be our primary concern for launch, is those surface winds that I just mentioned.

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Now, looking at our launch forecast at T-0, it calls for stratocumulus clouds in a few scattered

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areas from 1,000 to 4,000 feet. Our visibility will be unrestricted and we'll have temperatures

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in the low to mid 50s. We won't have any significant weather in the area other than those gusty winds.

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We are expecting winds from the north from 20 to 25 knots at T-0. But as I said, we'll expect to

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see higher winds in the afternoon for tower roll. We are expecting about 35 knots tomorrow

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afternoon, so overall probability of violation before T-0 is 40 percent.

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Should we have to scrub and go into a longer time frame, looking at 24 hours out, our forecast

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calls for much of the same conditions. We do expect some gusty winds again on Wednesday

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afternoon, which again will present a problem for tower roll.  But we do expect those to subside

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once we get into a -- later on in the count. We will expect winds from the north, again 18 to 22

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knots.So our probability of violation for a 24-hour scrub is 20 percent.

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Looking beyond that, the high pressure will build in more significantly and that will loosen the

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pressure gradient and bring more favorable weather for later on in the week. Tiffany?

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Thank you so much, Captain, and good luck with the launch.

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Thank you.

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