2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program
2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program
2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program
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RTMM is web-accessible, password protected,<br />
network application for use by anyone<br />
connected to the Internet. RTMM uses the<br />
Google Earth application as the end-user<br />
visualization package (i.e., easily accessible<br />
to users) but relies on a diverse distributed<br />
network of background data sources all<br />
connected by the Internet and managed<br />
by a set of web-based applications. RTMM<br />
employs many useful application tools that<br />
simplify the management of assets and<br />
decision-making process during airborne<br />
Earth science missions. To paraphrase the old<br />
BASF television commercial “RTMM doesn’t<br />
make the airborne science, it makes the<br />
airborne science better.”<br />
RTMM is useful in all three phases (preflight<br />
planning, in-flight situational awareness<br />
and adaptation, and post flight review) of<br />
an airborne mission. In the pre-flight phase,<br />
scientists can help plan flight patterns,<br />
flight leg durations, and coordinate aircraft<br />
waypoints with simultaneous satellite<br />
overpasses and/or other aircraft. In-flight,<br />
RTMM is used to facilitate the real time<br />
decision-making process to optimize the flight<br />
science goals. Scientists aboard the aircraft<br />
and on the ground can locate the aircraft<br />
and overlay the position with real time<br />
atmospheric data updates. Post-flight, RTMM<br />
can be used like a digital video source to<br />
replay any part of the mission as animations<br />
from take-off to landing.<br />
Impact to <strong>Science</strong> in Field <strong>Program</strong>s<br />
Over the last several years, the use of<br />
RTMM in <strong>NASA</strong> <strong>Airborne</strong> <strong>Science</strong> <strong>Program</strong><br />
has fundamentally changed how scientists<br />
participate in airborne field campaigns. From<br />
the scientist’s point of view, there is a new<br />
way to participate in doing science. This<br />
paradigm shift is evident in all three phases<br />
of the mission, but is particularly evident<br />
in both the pre-flight and in-flight phases.<br />
RTMM expands the sphere of participants<br />
by providing an easy, accessible means to<br />
view and acquire data, and interact with the<br />
missions as they are happening. Working<br />
closely with the Global Test Range project at<br />
<strong>NASA</strong> Dryden, RTMM uses satellite-based<br />
aircraft-ground network communications,<br />
creating a suborbital telepresence and sensor<br />
web to exchange data and information<br />
between the aircraft and ground operations,<br />
and from aircraft to aircraft. RTMM brings<br />
in data and images from a wide variety of<br />
<strong>NASA</strong> sources, other federal agency sites,<br />
academic organizations, and commercial<br />
data providers and integrates them in a<br />
widely available visualization package. This<br />
allows a larger number of people to be<br />
actively engaged in the mission as it happens.<br />
Participants, whether at a ground operations<br />
center, aboard the aircraft, or at their home<br />
institutions, all have simultaneous access to<br />
the same information.<br />
RTMM Application in <strong>2008</strong><br />
The RTMM proved its value in the field as it<br />
supported program managers, scientists, and<br />
aircraft personnel during several <strong>2008</strong> <strong>NASA</strong><br />
field deployments. The first two <strong>2008</strong> RTMM<br />
deployments were in support of the ARCTAS<br />
spring and summer experiments. In both<br />
experiment phases, RTMM monitored the<br />
long range DC-8 and P-3 flights to Thule,<br />
Greenland and across the arctic region. In<br />
<strong>2008</strong>, RTMM continued to evolve and add<br />
functionality. RTMM provided GOES visible,<br />
infrared, and water vapor products, multisatellite<br />
infrared composites, lidar, lightning<br />
cloud-to-ground detection, MODIS fire<br />
detection products, FSU Weather Research<br />
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