2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

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data were obtained and, with support from the ER-2 pilots and ground crew, a number of challenging problems were identified and addressed culminating in successful operation of the instrument. These flights validated the nadir viewing wind profiling measurement concept and provided system level validation of the key technologies. TWiLiTE is the first fully autonomous airborne Doppler wind lidar and represents an important step on the path to space. The TWiLiTE team is funded separately by NASA HQ under the Airborne Instrument Technology Transition (AITT) program (Program Scientist: Dr. Ramesh Kakar) to reconfigure the TWiLiTE instrument to fly on the NASA DC-8. One objective of the AITT program will be to co-fly TWiLiTE with the Doppler Aerosol Wind (DAWN) lidar system currently in development by NASA Langley under the IIP program. The DAWN lidar uses a different technology to measure winds using the backscattered laser light from atmospheric aerosols. The combination of a molecular Doppler lidar (TWiLiTE) and an aerosol Doppler lidar (DAWN) represents the ‘hybrid’ approach recommended by the National Research Council in the recent Earth Science Decadal Survey as the best solution to provide space based tropospheric wind measurements. Flights of TWiLiTE and DAWN will provide the first opportunity to examine the ‘hybrid’ Doppler lidar approach experimentally. For additional information contact Bruce Gentry (Bruce.M.Gentry@nasa.gov). Figure 38: TWiLiTE roll-out with Space Shuttle in background at Dryden Flight Research Center. 40
CO2 Laser Sounder During October 2008 Goddard’s CO2 Laser Sounder Team successfully demonstrated its new-pulsed airborne lidar to measure CO2 absorption. The instrument was configured to fly on the NASA Glenn Research Center’s Lear 25 aircraft. The lidar measures the optical absorption due to atmospheric CO2 in the nadir column from the aircraft to the surface. The lidar uses a pulsed fiber laser whose wavelength is scanned across the CO2 line, a 20 cm diameter receiver telescope, and time and height resolved photon counting detector and signal processing. Initial measurements were demonstrated with the lidar scanning a CO2 line absorption near 1571 nm while flying in the vicinity of Cleveland OH. Laser backscatter and absorption measurements were over a variety of land surface types, including water surfaces and through thin clouds, broken clouds and to cloud tops. Strong laser signals were observed at altitudes from 2.5 to 11 km on two flights. The team completed three additional airborne flight tests during December 2008. During these the team flew its CO2 Sounder lidar on the NASA-Glenn Lear-25 and gathered over 6 hours of atmospheric CO2 column line shape and depth measurements. Airborne CO2 line shape measurements were made over Ohio on several flights while flying from 3-11 km altitudes. Subsequently the team deployed to Ponca City, OK, just east of the DOE ARM site. There it made 2 flights with 4 hours of airborne Figure 39: Aircraft at ARM site. 41
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
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Page 17 and 18: AVIRIS Science Focus: HQ Sponsor: P
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Page 21 and 22: Decadal Survey Support Missions Sin
Page 23 and 24: epeat pass data were collected over
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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
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Page 39 and 40: AAFEx HQ sponsor: Aeronautics Resea
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Page 43 and 44: Instrument Test Flights In FY 2009,
Page 45: TWiLiTE In September, 2009 Bruce Ge
Page 49: AESMIR The AESMIR 2009 test flights
Page 53 and 54: Science and Requirements The Scienc
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Page 61 and 62: Aircraft Platforms Introduction The
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Page 65 and 66: NASA’s ER-2 NASA operates two ER-
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Page 71 and 72: payload, and enough fuel for a 4-5
Page 73 and 74: The Twin-Otter continued its airbor
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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
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Page 91 and 92: vapor mapping, and was flight-teste
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COLLABORATIONS and PARTNERSHIPS
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on the UAS community and that it is
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among research programs with simila
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Media, Education and Outreach NSERC
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ISRSE NASA’s Airborne Science Pro
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for coverage of the Costa Rican por
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Recognition and Awards Spring 2009
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Genesis and Rapid Intensification P
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APPENDIX A In Memoriam Frank Caldei
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APPENDIX B Airborne Program History
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Figure 72: 1981 photo of Ames Aircr
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APPENDIX C Five-Year Plan Task Name
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24. NASA POLARIS 25. NASA SAGE III
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ATM AVIRIS AVOCET AXCTD Airborne To
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GLISTIN GloPac GOLD GPS GRIP GSFC G
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NAS NASA NASDAT NCAR NGC NIR NMEA N
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U UAPO UAS UAV UAVSAR UCSD UND URS
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2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

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