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2 Setting the Stage: The Role of Airborne Platforms in Earth System Science
Pages 17-34

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From page 17...
... However, for this report, the committee organized the science research objectives for which airborne platforms can play a substantial role according to the ESAS priority science and applications areas. In addition to these science areas, there are critical and interdisciplinary Earth system science connections to which airborne observations contribute in concert with spaceborne and surface observations.
From page 18...
... The system includes numerous spaceborne observations from satellites and the International Space Station; airborne observations from piloted aircraft, uncrewed airborne systems, and balloons; surface and subsurface observations for land and water as well as remote sensing from the surface; computer models for Earth system simulation; and controlled laboratory experiments.
From page 19...
... Measurements from both geostationary and polar satellites have been used to observe episodic extreme events and their impacts, such as volcanic eruptions, rapidly spreading wildland fires, and the Antarctic ozone hole. They are used to test computer models to improve model predictive capability and are assimilated into computer models to make predictions of weather and air quality.
From page 20...
... Increasing model complexity is critical for accurately representing the Earth system as it is now and predicting its evolution resulting from internal forcing, such as increasing greenhouse gases, particularly those caused by humans, or volcanic activity, and external forcing, such as changes in solar radiation. The way that observations, including space-based, airborne, surface, and subsurface measurements, laboratory studies, and computer models are used together depends on the research question that is being addressed.
From page 21...
... Once the satellite is operational in orbit, airborne measurements provide calibration and testing for the satellite measurements, in terms of both instrument health and algorithm improvement. Airborne capacity helps with satellite improvements through a number of strategies including underflights, vertical profiling under the satellite measurement track, and flight patterns that help relate the satellite measurement scales to the smaller scales of the atmospheric or surface phenomena that airborne instruments can measure.
From page 22...
... 2.4 A SYNOPSIS OF THE CURRENT AIRBORNE FLEET NASA maintains an airborne fleet for Earth system research that is more extensive and diversified than the fleets of any other U.S. federal agency, the European Union's European Facility for Airborne Research (EUFAR)
From page 23...
... Setting the Stage: The Role of Airborne Platforms in Earth System Science 23 Table 2.1 Fixed Wing Aircraft and Uncrewed Airborne Systems (UAS) in the Research Fleets of U.S.
From page 24...
... These aircraft can have a lower cost and greater availability than NASA Airborne Science Program aircraft. However, for any NASA-funded research, NASA requires that vendors meet its Flight Program Standards for commercial aircraft concerning airworthiness and safe operation.
From page 25...
... For example, on-UAS technology that can spot another aircraft in the airspace and autonomously avoid it is being developed and could decrease the risk posed by long-range UAS operations. As UAS technology matures and regulators, operators, and standards bodies develop the technologies, standards, and rules for ensuring aviation safety, UAS should become more widely used for Earth science missions.
From page 26...
... Although stratospheric balloons have potential for long-duration remote sensing at a single location or in a circumpolar pattern, aircraft have much greater capability for remote sensing over the wide range of wind conditions, global locations, flight patterns, and targeting times that are necessary for the broad range of remote sensing needs for Earth system science research. 2.4d Aircraft from Other Countries Governmental and other organizations abroad are also invested in airborne fleets as part of their own research strategy and their contribution to international research.
From page 27...
... being mounted on the Indian Space Research Organization's King Air B200 for recent surface studies in India. 2.4e Airborne Research Using Many Platforms Many aircraft and balloons have often been used in coordination for past airborne research.
From page 28...
... However, NASA also has facility instruments that are currently supported by NASA and provided for use to the wider science community through a flight request process. 2.5a NASA Facility Instruments NASA facility instruments are generally large remote sensing instruments, including cameras, spectrometers, interferometers, a lidar, and a radar (Table 2.2)
From page 29...
... Setting the Stage: The Role of Airborne Platforms in Earth System Science 29 and 2,500 nm) water vapor, and across a 677- aerosols pixel swath, with an IFOV calibrated to within 0.2 mrad Applanix DC-8, B200, Navigation 7 510 PCS (0.25 × Aircraft position Position and Caravan, recorder and (15 lb)
From page 30...
... 30 Airborne Platforms to Advance NASA Earth System Science Priorities Table 2.2 Continued Mass Title Aircraft Type (kg) a Volume Measurements Land, DC-8, B200, Wide-swath 79 0.53 × 0.53 × 0.62 Three-dimensional Vegetation, and Gulfstream imaging laser (175 m (20.75″ × structure of Ice Sensor V, C-130, altimeter; a lb)
From page 31...
... The group of remote sensing instruments currently in use include lidars, radars, passive spectral sensors in wavelength ranges from the ultraviolet to the microwave, and radiometers for measurements of both surface and atmospheric variables and processes. For research involving ecological change, a few notable non-facility instruments are frequently used.
From page 32...
... . The third is the High Altitude Monolithic Microwave integrated Circuit Sounding Radiometer, which is a multiwavelength channel, multimicrowave band that measures three-dimensional distributions of temperature, water vapor, and cloud liquid water.5 For atmospheric chemistry research, a number of in situ and a few remote sensing instruments measure some of the following: environmental physical state variables; a number of the hundreds of trace gases of interest, from small molecules such as the hydroxyl radical, to large organic molecules; ice and liquid cloud drop and aerosol particle properties such as size, composition, optical properties, and other particle characteristics.
From page 33...
... . A miniaturized version of this instrument, the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar, was developed using advanced technologies, has twice the spatial resolution of AIRSAR, and is capable of precision autopilot.
From page 34...
... . Size, mass, and power reduction will also come from massproducible miniaturized key instrument components or subsystems, rapidly emerging technologies such as photonic integrated circuits, system-on-chip solutions, free-form optics, room-temperature detectors, and other compact electronic and optical architectures.


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