2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

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