2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

Instrument Test Flights
In FY 2009, the Airborne Science Program
continued to support technology development,
including projects funded by the Earth Science
Technology Office (ESTO) Instrument Incubator
Program (IIP) and Airborne Instrument Technology
Transfer (AITT) program.
These flights include a variety of science
instruments including RADARs, LIDARs, optical
instruments and passive microwave experiments.
By demonstrating these instruments can operate
in an aircraft environment, increased technology
readiness levels can be demonstrated, bringing
the development one step closer to being mission
ready. Since some airborne experiments must be
compact, rugged and semi-autonomous, this forces
the instrument teams to develop technologies
also needed for the rigors of space operation.
Airborne instruments also supply data that can be
used to design the operating parameters of space
instruments. They are a vital link in the development
of space-based instruments by providing actual
measurements of real-world phenomena. This
understanding enables space instruments to be
properly designed and to optimize data collection
parameters.
Some of the more significant demonstration flights
conducted this past year include SIMPL, TWiLiTE,
and CO 2 Laser Sounder.
SIMPL
The first science flights of the Slope Imaging Multipolarization
Photon-Counting Lidar (SIMPL) were
conducted in February, 2009. SIMPL’s development
was sponsored by NASA’s Earth Science
Technology Office (ESTO) Instrument Incubator
Program (IIP). The SIMPL project was selected by
the IIP in response to a call for instrumentation that
enabled improved elevation mapping of ice sheets,
glaciers and sea ice. David Harding (Goddard Space
Flight Center, Code 698) is the SIMPL Principal
Investigator.
SIMPL is an advanced technology airborne laser
altimeter. It incorporates beam splitting, micropulse
single-photon ranging and polarimetry technologies
at visible (green, 532 nm) and near-infrared
(NIR, 1064 nm) wavelengths in order to achieve
simultaneous sampling of surface elevation and
the physical state of the surface along four parallel
profiles. The deployment goals were to demonstrate
the instruments measurement capabilities and
document the system performance by collecting data
over snow and ice targets. SIMPL was deployed
on Glenn Research Center’s Lear 25 flown out of
Cleveland, OH. During three flights totaling about
8 hours, data was collected over ice cover on Lake
Erie and snow-covered landscapes in Ohio and
Pennsylvania. Additional instrumentation included
an Applanix POS-AV system provided by the
NASA Airborne Science Office at Ames Research
Center, collecting position and attitude data used to
geolocate SIMPL’s profiles. Also deployed was nadir
video to document the flight lines.
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