2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

functional traits: cell structure, shade tolerance,
and recalcitrance. Data will also be used to
investigate forest growth, carbon cycling and
the interaction between ecosystems and climate.
During the WPAFB-AVIRIS campaign the ER2
806 flew a total of 55.2 hours (including 12 hrs
of transit time) of the estimated 69.8 hrs (79%)
during the WPAFB AVIRIS/CPL campaign. A
total of 35 defined experimental sites were flown
and some sites were repeated. The WPAFB-
AVIRIS campaign was completed on July 29, 2009.
In August, the team continued to fly the AVIRIS
sensor over required experiment sites in Southern
and Northern California. In September, the
TWiLiTE sensor returned to DFRC and was
uploaded into A/C 806 and completed it required
flights.
In summary, the ER-2’s flew a total of 204 flight
hours combined totaling 72 sorties.
In addition, In 2009, the ER-2 project supported
several education and outreach events by providing
a presentation and demonstration of the pressure
suit. Presentations were made at several local
schools in the Antelope Valley, at an Edwards
AFB air show, at the TATTOO air show at
WPAFB, Dayton Ohio, and at the special Air
Force Junior ROTC “honors camps” at the
University of Oklahoma and University of New
Mexico. The ER-2 team also supported the
NASA Headquarters aeronautics theme at the
Albuquerque balloon festival in Albuquerque,
New Mexico.
In fiscal year 2010 the ER-2 operations will
be re-located from DFRC hangar 4840, to the
Dryden’s Aircraft Operations Facility (DAOF) in
Palmdale. This move, along with efforts to share
infrastructure with other projects, will allow the
ER-2 to continue to maintain its reduced hourly
flight cost.
Details on the ER-2s, their capabilities, and points
of contact can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/
centers/dryden/research/AirSci/ER-2/
Figure 47:
TWiLiTE in Q-Bay of ER-2.
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