2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

NOAA and a DOE aircraft, and aircraft
from Canada, France, Germany and Russia.
This mission was an example of where
ASP investments in data transmission and
sensor web technologies have really paid
off by uplinking and downlinking data from
multiple aircraft, while in flight, and then
sharing the data between the aircraft, as well
as with the ground operations center. This
allows a shared flight experience across the
distributed science team, maximizing the data
return per flight hour.
We have also jumped in to help support the
development of the Decadal Survey missions,
including SMAP-VEX, PALs, LVIS, MASTER,
Western States Fire Missions, Cold Land
Process Experiment, AVIRIS, AMISA, UAVSAR
and the Antarctica ATM/PARIS. These
precursor support flights and missions were
accomplished with the use of our core, new
technology, and catalog aircraft suite. These
earth science missions were augmented
with support and funding from other NASA
science divisions, Federal and State agencies,
and with our international partners.
We flew over much of the globe this year
– from Tahiti to the North Pole to Antarctica
to Sweden - and based or flew our aircraft
over most of the Earth’s continents. This
international activity would not have been
possible without the very professional
support we received from NASA’s Office
of External Affairs and the U.S. State
Department.
This year we brought our Palmdale facility
online and have already run some major
missions from here. This has been a major
stabilizing force to the entire Airborne
Science Program. As of last year, both the
DC-8 and SOFIA, our two biggest science
aircraft in NASA, had no permanent
housing. With the addition of the Global
Hawks at DFRC, space had become an
issue for the ER-2s as well. This new facility
has contributed significantly to reducing
our operational risk while stabilizing the
program. By eliminating our aircraft basing
uncertainty, the morale improved for those
on the frontline, where the consequences of
distraction can be lethal.
Our NOVICE project on the WB-57 was
very successful in allowing sensors with little
flight maturity a chance to demonstrate their
capability and improve their operations under
actual flight conditions. It is important to
note this mission was squeezed between two
hurricanes bearing down on Houston, which
speaks to the dedication of our program
personnel and the science teams. This small
demonstration concept was so successful that
additional projects are now being formulated
to continue these types of flights for the
instrument developers.
Our education and outreach programs are
continuing, with the WETMAAP project for
K-12, training teachers how to use remote
sensing data in their classrooms. Education
programs based at the University of North
Dakota were also supporting undergraduate
and graduate students, developing our
future work force in remote sensing systems
and applications. In fact, next year, UND
participation will reach a new level with
the development of a wholly student run
airborne campaign on the DC-8.
We are continuing to improve our operations
and have started an Airborne Science
Recognition Program for our personnel, as
4