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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EPA Joint Sensors Mission<br />
HQ Sponsor:<br />
PI:<br />
Environmental Protection Agency<br />
Szykman<br />
In <strong>2009</strong>, <strong>NASA</strong> Langley integrated three<br />
instrument packages onto its Cessna 206 to<br />
provide support to the Ecosystem Services<br />
Research <strong>Program</strong> (ESRP) of the US<br />
Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s)<br />
Office of Research and Development. The ESRP<br />
is a new, multi-year research initiative which<br />
will combine selected ecological indicator data<br />
and recent advances in resource economics to<br />
determine the value of services that terrestrial<br />
and aquatic ecosystems provide to humans. The<br />
instruments include a VISNIR Hyperspectral<br />
Imager called the Environmental Mapping<br />
Visible Imaging Spectrometer (EMVIS), a set<br />
of Hyperspectral ocean color radiometers<br />
(HyperOCR), and an infrared pyrometer.<br />
The instruments will provide optical and thermal<br />
data for research in the ESRP-Nitrogen and<br />
ESRP-Coastal Carolinas program to determine<br />
how changes in reactive nitrogen loading from<br />
terrestrial landscapes relate to changes in nutrient<br />
cycling and the impact to the ecosystem services<br />
associated with nutrient retention provided by<br />
freshwater and marine systems, specifically in lakes<br />
and drinking water reservoirs in New England and<br />
in the Albemarle/Pamlico Sound region.<br />
Results from Instrument Check Flights (ICF)<br />
on August 4, <strong>2009</strong> indicate strong correlations<br />
between remotely sensed sea surface temperatures<br />
and Chlorophyll-A concentrations, derived from<br />
a bio-optical model, and in situ data measured<br />
in the York River and Susquehanna River/<br />
lower Chesapeake Bay by the Virginia Institute<br />
of Marine <strong>Science</strong>s (VIMS) Virginia Estuarine<br />
and Coastal Observing system and the NOAA<br />
Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy system.<br />
Following the ICFs, the Cessna 206 flew a series<br />
of science flights between August 25 and 30,<br />
<strong>2009</strong> spanning coastal to piedmont areas of<br />
North Carolina to collect EMVIS, HyperOCR,<br />
and thermal data for the ESRP Coastal Carolinas<br />
<strong>Program</strong>. A research goal is to integrate airborne<br />
hyperspectral remote sensor data and ENVISAT-1<br />
Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer<br />
(MERIS) satellite data with in situ monitoring<br />
data and ferry-based water quality monitoring<br />
to provide a nearly continuous multi-resolution<br />
phytoplankton bloom monitoring capability for<br />
the entire Albemarle and Pamlico Sound region<br />
and the Neuse River estuary. During these flights,<br />
Langley served as the base of operations.<br />
From September 13-18, <strong>2009</strong> the Cessna 206<br />
deployed to New England to support data<br />
collection and algorithm development for water<br />
quality indicators over Long Island and Rhode<br />
Island Sounds, followed by a series of inland<br />
flights over selected New England lakes and<br />
ponds. During the deployment, the Cessna<br />
206 surveyed 55 lakes in four states in a twoday<br />
period. Lakes were selected based on their<br />
trophic status. Aircraft data were supplemented<br />
by concurrently collected in situ data from<br />
several lakes by field crews provided by the states<br />
of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts<br />
and New Hampshire, the University of New<br />
Hampshire, and coordinated by US EPA Region I.<br />
The Cessna 206 flights in New England were<br />
conducted to support the Remote Sensing of<br />
Phytoplankton <strong>Program</strong> (ReSePP) at the EPA’s<br />
Atlantic Ecology Division in Narragansett, Rhode<br />
Island.<br />
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