Airborne Science Program

Airborne Science Program
NASA/Tony Landis · Public domain · source
Name	Airborne Science Program
Established	20th century
Type	Research program
Headquarters	Various flight bases
Leader	Program directors and principal investigators
Affiliations	National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States Geological Survey, European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Airborne Science Program The Airborne Science Program supports airborne platforms for observational science, technology demonstration, and campaign-based investigations using specialized aircraft and instruments. It integrates resources from National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States Geological Survey, European Space Agency, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency alongside academic institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Chicago to provide airborne support for atmospheric, oceanographic, cryospheric, and terrestrial sciences. The program coordinates flight operations, instrument development, data stewardship, and partnerships with agencies like National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, and National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Overview

The program operates research aircraft including highly modified platforms such as the NASA ER-2, NASA P-3 Orion, NASA DC-8, and remotely piloted systems related to General Atomics, tailored with payloads for lidar, radar, spectrometers, and radiometers from vendors and labs including Ball Aerospace, Raytheon, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. It supports field campaigns with planning by centers like Goddard Space Flight Center, Ames Research Center, Langley Research Center, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and coordinates logistics with facilities such as Kennedy Space Center and international hubs including Heathrow Airport, Frankfurt Airport, and Tokyo Haneda Airport. Program activities interface with standards and protocols from Committee on Data for Science and Technology, World Meteorological Organization, and Group on Earth Observations.

History

Origins trace to high-altitude reconnaissance and research efforts tied to projects at Lockheed Corporation and initiatives during the Cold War involving U-2 development and aircraft operated by Central Intelligence Agency contractors, evolving through collaborations with National Aeronautics and Space Administration programs like Earth Science Division and early campaigns such as GLOBE Program flights. Milestones include instrumented flights supporting satellite missions such as Landsat, MODIS, ICESat, SMAP, Terra, and Aqua, and development of airborne lidar and radar techniques influenced by laboratories at Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory. Key campaign histories include coordinated efforts with observatories like Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Aircraft and Instrumentation

Aircraft types range from high-altitude platforms linked to Boeing variants and testbeds managed by NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center to turboprops and piston aircraft maintained by institutions such as University of North Dakota and regional operators certified by Federal Aviation Administration. Instrumentation includes airborne versions of spaceborne sensors developed by groups at Caltech/JPL, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratories, and National Snow and Ice Data Center using technology from firms like Leica Geosystems and Trimble Navigation. Typical sensor suites comprise airborne synthetic aperture radar related to RADARSAT heritage, Doppler wind lidars linked to European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts studies, hyperspectral imagers connected to AVIRIS lineage, and in situ samplers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.

Research Programs and Objectives

Research addresses atmospheric chemistry studies tied to Atmospheric Chemistry Division priorities, cryosphere monitoring in support of International Cryosphere Climate Initiative goals, ocean color and biology studies aligned with Harmful Algal Bloom monitoring efforts, and land surface characterization complementing Landsat and Sentinel missions. Objectives include validation for missions such as ICESat-2, SMAP, GRACE, and Sentinel-6, support for process studies influenced by Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission science, and technology maturation for airborne lidar and radar systems pursued by research groups at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Northrop Grumman. Programs often feed into assessments by bodies like Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and operational initiatives at National Weather Service.

Operations and Flight Campaigns

Campaign planning involves logistics with Air Traffic Control authorities, safety oversight from Federal Aviation Administration, and international coordination through ICAO frameworks and base operations at sites including Wallops Flight Facility, Palmdale Regional Airport, Edwards Air Force Base, Norwich Airport, and Breighton Aerodrome. Notable campaigns have included intensive observation periods supporting phenomena studied in Antarctic, Arctic, Amazon Rainforest, Gulf of Mexico, and Himalayas expeditions run by teams from Columbia University, University of Washington, University of Colorado Boulder, and Pennsylvania State University. Data collection protocols reference quality control practices endorsed by Committee on Earth Observation Satellites.

Data Management and Accessibility

Data management follows best practices established by NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, and international repositories like European Space Agency Data archives. Metadata standards adhere to schemas championed by Dublin Core and community conventions propagated by Open Geospatial Consortium, with data citation frameworks influenced by DataCite. Data products support open access policies modeled after directives from White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and are incorporated into synthesis efforts by PANGAEA and Global Biodiversity Information Facility contributors.

Collaborations and Funding

Collaborators include universities such as Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and research institutes like Max Planck Society, CNRS, and CSIC. Funding sources span National Science Foundation, Department of Energy Office of Science, European Commission Horizon 2020, national ministries such as Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan), and philanthropic foundations including Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation. Program governance engages steering committees with representation from American Geophysical Union, European Geosciences Union, and professional societies including American Meteorological Society.

Impact and Applications

Outcomes affect satellite mission calibration for systems like MODIS and Sentinel-3, improve process understanding in climate assessments by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, advance hazard response for events such as Hurricane Katrina and Deepwater Horizon oil spill monitoring, and inform resource management in regions represented by Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service. Scientific outputs are published in journals such as Science (journal), Nature (journal), Geophysical Research Letters, Journal of Geophysical Research, and Remote Sensing of Environment, influencing policy dialogues in forums like Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and advisory panels for National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Category:Earth science flight programs