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