2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

More documents

Recommendations

Info

CALIPSO Cal/Val Science Focus: HQ Sponsor: PI: Atmospheric Composition and Chemistry Maring McGill A series of flights on the LaRC B200 was flown to verify the calibration of the CALIOP lidar on the CALIPSO satellite before and after the switch from the primary to the backup CALIOP laser transmitter (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ Newsroom/view.phpid=38252) on March 12, 2009. The High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) was deployed on the B200 for eleven underflights of the CALIPSO satellite starting in January and ending in April. The data proved conclusively that the calibration of the satellite instrument was not affected by the change in lasers. For more information, visit: http://science.larc. nasa.gov/hsrl/index.html Figure 5: HSRL Deployed in NASA Langley King Air B200. 12
CASIE Science Focus: HQ Sponsors: PI: Cryosphere Kaye, Albertson Maslanik The Characterization of Arctic Sea Ice Experiment (CASIE), flown from Svalbard, Norway on the SIERRA UAS in July of 2009, was the aircraft campaign portion of the larger, NASA-funded IPY project titled “Sea Ice Roughness as an Indicator of Fundamental Changes in the Arctic Ice Cover: Observations, Monitoring, and Relationships to Environmental Factors.” This 3-year research effort, which combined satellite data analysis, modeling, and aircraft observations, includes scientists, engineers and students from the University of Colorado, Brigham Young University, Fort Hays State University and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory working together with research aviation specialists from NASA’s Ames Research Center. The project is attempting to answer some of the most basic questions regarding the future of the Arctic’s sea ice cover. In particular, our work will help us better understand one of the most fundamental changes in sea ice cover in recent years – the loss of the oldest and thickest types of ice from within the Arctic Ocean. This change has been rapid and extreme. For example, our analysis of satellite data shows that the amount of older ice in 2009 is just 12% of what it was in 1988, a decline of 74%. The oldest ice types now cover only 2% of the Arctic Ocean as compared to 20% during the 1980’s. Not only does this change affect the total amount of ice in the Arctic, but it also affect the ability of the ice cover to resist increased warming. In turn, this loss of the old ice types will influence activities such as shipping and mineral exploration, and it is important for marine mammals and fish that use the ice cover as safe havens and platforms. CASIE’s role in this project was to provide very detailed information on ice conditions by using a small unmanned aircraft (NASA’s SIERRA) that can fly long distances at low altitudes – a job that can be difficult and dangerous for large, manned aircraft, especially in the harsh Arctic environment. The primary payload consisted of 2 LIDARS and a C-Band SAR for providing information on ice surface roughness and topography, thickness, reflectance, and age. For this mission, the SIERRA team developed an icing warning system, in consultation with NASA GRC and NCAR, to provide the ground station with temperature and humidity data in real time. For more information, visit: http://espo.nasa.gov/ CASIE 13
Page 3: NASA Science Mission Directorate Ea
Page 6 and 7: Collaborations and Partnerships FAA
Page 9 and 10: FROM THE DIRECTOR Welcome to NASA
Page 11 and 12: PROGRAM ELEMENTS and EXECUTION The
Page 13: Langley and Glenn Research Centers
Page 17: AVIRIS Science Focus: HQ Sponsor: P
Page 21 and 22: Decadal Survey Support Missions Sin
Page 23 and 24: epeat pass data were collected over
Page 25 and 26: SWOT Science Focus: HQ Sponsor: PI:
Page 27 and 28: Figure 13: Installation of the thre
Page 29 and 30: Figure 16: March 3, NASA P-3 Flight
Page 31 and 32: Interferometric SAR Ice Mapping in
Page 33 and 34: Figure 22: Backscatter imagery for
Page 35 and 36: southern hemisphere over Antarctica
Page 37 and 38: Western States Fire Science Focus:
Page 39 and 40: AAFEx HQ sponsor: Aeronautics Resea
Page 41 and 42: RACORO Sponsor: PI: Ambrose, Dorne
Page 43 and 44: Instrument Test Flights In FY 2009,
Page 45 and 46: TWiLiTE In September, 2009 Bruce Ge
Page 47 and 48: CO2 Laser Sounder During October 20
Page 49: AESMIR The AESMIR 2009 test flights
Page 53 and 54: Science and Requirements The Scienc
Page 55 and 56: Figure 43: Aircraft Utilization FY
Page 57: JASSIWG effort (http://airbornescie
Page 61 and 62: Aircraft Platforms Introduction The
Page 63 and 64: Figure 44: Ktech TM data receiving
Page 65 and 66: NASA’s ER-2 NASA operates two ER-
Page 67 and 68: FY09 was a busy year for NASA’s W
Page 69 and 70:
NASA’s G-III NASA DFRC operates t
Page 71 and 72:
payload, and enough fuel for a 4-5
Page 73 and 74:
The Twin-Otter continued its airbor
Page 75:
The Ikhana is a civil variant of th
Page 79 and 80:
Global Hawk NASA Dryden and Northro
Page 81 and 82:
SlERRA The Sensor Integrated Enviro
Page 83 and 84:
Common Data and Communications Syst
Page 85:
Power Distribution Unit (MPCS/PDU)
Page 89 and 90:
Airborne Sensor Facility Formerly k
Page 91 and 92:
vapor mapping, and was flight-teste
Page 93 and 94:
Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility
Page 97:
COLLABORATIONS and PARTNERSHIPS
Page 100 and 101:
on the UAS community and that it is
Page 102:
among research programs with simila
Page 107 and 108:
Media, Education and Outreach NSERC
Page 109 and 110:
ISRSE NASA’s Airborne Science Pro
Page 111 and 112:
for coverage of the Costa Rican por
Page 113:
Recognition and Awards Spring 2009
Page 116:
Genesis and Rapid Intensification P
Page 121 and 122:
APPENDIX A In Memoriam Frank Caldei
Page 123 and 124:
APPENDIX B Airborne Program History
Page 125 and 126:
Figure 72: 1981 photo of Ames Aircr
Page 127:
APPENDIX C Five-Year Plan Task Name
Page 130 and 131:
24. NASA POLARIS 25. NASA SAGE III
Page 132 and 133:
ATM AVIRIS AVOCET AXCTD Airborne To
Page 134 and 135:
GLISTIN GloPac GOLD GPS GRIP GSFC G
Page 136 and 137:
NAS NASA NASDAT NCAR NGC NIR NMEA N
Page 138:
U UAPO UAS UAV UAVSAR UCSD UND URS
show all

2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?