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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Cold Land<br />
Processes<br />
<strong>Science</strong> Focus: Water & Energy<br />
Sponsor: J. Entin, <strong>NASA</strong> HQ<br />
Location: Alaska<br />
The next increment of the ongoing<br />
Cold Land Processes<br />
Experiment (CLPX) was<br />
conducted in November 2007<br />
and Feburary <strong>2008</strong> in Alaska. The<br />
primary goal of this mission phase was to<br />
develop POLSCAT Ku radar based retrievals<br />
algorithms of snow water equivalent in<br />
Northern Alaska.<br />
CLPX-II involved the JPL/<strong>NASA</strong> POLSCAT<br />
radar instrument, a Ku-band Polarimeteric<br />
Scatterometer. For CLPX-II, POLSCAT was<br />
installed on a <strong>NASA</strong> contracted aircraft,<br />
Twin Otter- deHavilland DHC-6. The Twin<br />
Otter was chosen due to its proven cold<br />
climate operations, and because it is a highly<br />
maneuverable, versatile aircraft that is very<br />
economical to operate.<br />
The principal investigators of CLPX-II are<br />
Don Kline of NOAA NOHRSC (National<br />
Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing<br />
Center), Kelly Elders of the USDA U.S.<br />
Forest Service, and Simon Yueh and Steve<br />
Dinardo of <strong>NASA</strong>’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<br />
The Cold Land Processes Experiment is<br />
sponsored by Jared Entin of the <strong>NASA</strong><br />
Terrestrial Hydrology program.<br />
POLSCAT successfully flew 29 data flight<br />
hours in November 2007, and 45 data flight<br />
hours in February <strong>2008</strong>, over the Alaska<br />
North Slope project sites. These sites<br />
included: Chanadalar Shelf, Kuparuk River, and<br />
Sag river, Alaska.<br />
URL: http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov<br />
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