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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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