2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

International Activities and
Collaborations
ICCAGRA/EUFAR
In FY2009, Interagency Coordinating Committee
for Airborne Geoscience Research and Applications
(ICCAGRA) representatives voted to create a
working group for coordinating agency activities
related to the use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems
(UAS). The working group was formed with
representatives from NASA, NOAA, NSF, USGS,
and NRL and was co-chaired by Matt Fladeland and
Brenda Mulac from NASA. The purpose of the
working group is to encourage open communication
and information exchange between the agencies
about plans to use UAS and to describe roadblocks
to implementation. The working group provides
a forum in which each of the member agencies
can share lessons learned from UAS operations
and other UAS experiences. The first priority of
the working group is to summarize the various
requirements and use cases for each agency, and then
provide a concise summary to the FAA to further
their understanding of our needs for accessing the
National Airspace System.
As a part of the Airborne Science Program (ASP)
initiative to increase dialog and cooperation with
the airborne activities of other nations, as well
as with international governmental and nongovernmental
multilateral organizations, we have
increased our participation in the International
Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
(ISPRS). First, we have identified the International
Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment
(ISRSE), an ISPRS symposium, as the major forum
for increasing ASP dialog with the international
airborne community as well as with the international
community of researchers whose focus is space
acquired data. In addition ASP initiated and
currently participates in Working Group 1,
Standardization of Airborne Platform Interface,
of ISPRS Commission I, Image Data Acquisition-
Sensors and Platforms.
In May of 2009, ASP participated in the 33rd
International Symposium on Remote Sensing of
Environment in Stresa, Italy. ASP participants
exhibited NASA technology, attended workshops
and exchanged technical papers with approximately
1,000 delegates from more than 50 countries. The
34th ISRSE will be convened in Sydney, Australia in
April of 2011.
The first meeting of ISPRS Working Group I-1 was
convened as an adjunct to the 33rd ISRSE in Stresa.
NASA and other members of the U.S. ICCAGRA
Committee were joined in the working group
meetings by the European Facility for Airborne
Research (EUFAR) from Toulouse, France and by
the Center for Earth Observations and Digital Earth
(CEODE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
from Beijing, China.
The second meeting of the working group will be
held in Calgary, Canada in June of 2010 as a part of
the ISPRS Commission I Symposium.
IWGADTS
Since 2005 the Interagency Working Group for
Airborne Data and Telecommunications Systems
(IWGADTS) has been a subgroup to ICCAGRA
for the purpose of developing recommendations
leading to increased productivity and interoperability
among airborne platforms and instrument payloads.
The IWGADTS group produces increased synergy
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