2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

DESDYNI
Science Focus:
HQ Sponsors:
PIs:
Carbon Cycle & Ecosystem Science,
Earth Surface and Interior
Wickland, Dobson
Simard, Saatchi, Sequeira, Parrish, Aanstoos,
Kearny, Jones, Rignot, Zebker, Moeller
The Deformation, Ecosystem Structure, and the
Dynamics of Ice Mission (DESDynI) has been
described as “a dedicated U.S. InSAR and LIDAR
mission optimized for studying hazards and global
environmental change.” The recently-developed
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture
Radar (UAVSAR) system represents the L-Band
Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar
component of that mission. Designed to
fly on multiple aircraft, including Global
Hawk, the UAVSAR flew 440.2 hrs during
the period January 22 to October 2, 2009,
on the NASA Gulfstream – III (G-III)
aircraft. These sorties primarily were
repeat-pass InSAR flights supporting early
science objectives related to each of the
focus areas for the DESDynI Mission.
Deformation Studies in Southern California due to Seismic
Activity
Deformation studies in Southern California were
conducted as a series of missions originating and
recovering at Dryden. Large contiguous areas were
imaged along the San Andreas and Hayward faults
Deformation studies included seismic
activity and mudslide potential studies
along the Hayward and San Andreas
faults; California, Levee studies in the
Sacramento Delta and along the Mississippi
River; Subsidence along the Gulf Coast
of Louisiana, and Volcanic activity in the
Cascades, Yellowstone, and the Alaskan
Aleutian Islands.
Figure 8:
UAVSAR mounted under the G-III at Dryden Flight Research Center.
Ecosystem Structure studies included Kings Canyon
in the Sierra Nevada, Boreal Forest sites in Canada,
New Hampshire, and Maine, mixed forests in
Pennsylvania and at the Harvard and Duke Forests,
and coastal wetlands in North Carolina and Florida.
Finally, data to study the Dynamics of Ice were
collected on a major deployment to Greenland and
Iceland. (Described as part of IPY).
from the San Francisco area to the Mexican border.
Baseline imagery was collected from February 18 to
April 4, 2009. Repeat pass imagery was collected
from September 9 through September 21, 2009.
The G-III flew 57.8 hours in support of three
flight requests from Principal Investigators Paul
Lundgren, Andrea Donnellan, and Eric Fielding to
examine changes along the fault zones. Some of
the same data are also being used by Eric Fielding
and Catherine Jones to examine risk of mud slides
in burned and defoliated landscapes. Additionally,
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