Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “ER-2”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 703 records · Page 39
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2022

Simultaneous Characterization of Wildfire Smoke and Surface Properties With Imaging Spectroscopy During the FIREX-AQ Field Campaign

We introduce and evaluate an approach for the simultaneous retrieval of aerosol and surface properties from Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer Classic (AVIRIS-C) data collected during wildfires. The joint National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality field campaign took place in August 2019, and involved two aircraft and coordinated ground-based observations. The AVIRIS-C instrument acquired data from onboard NASA's high altitude ER-2 research aircraft, coincident in space and time with aerosol observations obtained from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) DRAGON mobile platform in the smoke plume downwind of the Williams Flats Fire in northern Washington in August 2019. Observations in this smoke plume were used to assess the capacity of optimal-estimation based retrievals to simultaneously estimate aerosol optical depth (AOD) and surface reflectance from Visible Shortwave Infrared (VSWIR) imaging spectroscopy. Radiative transfer modeling of the sensitivities in spectral information collected over smoke reveal the potential capacity of high spectral resolution retrievals to distinguish between sulfate and smoke aerosol models, as well as sensitivity to the aerosol size distribution. Comparison with ground-based AERONET observations demonstrates that AVIRIS-C retrievals of AOD compare favorably with direct sun AOD measurements. Our analyses suggest that spectral information collected from the full VSWIR spectral interval, not just the shortest wavelengths, enables accurate retrievals. We use this approach to continuously map both aerosols and surface reflectance at high spatial resolution across heterogeneous terrain, even under relatively high AOD conditions associated with wildfire smoke.

FIREX-AQ↗
NASA NTRS2022

Relationship of Multiwavelength Radar Measurements to Ice Microphysics from the IMPACTS Field Program

Coincident radar data with Doppler radar measurements at X, Ku, Ka, and W bands on the NASA ER-2 aircraft overflying the NASA P3 aircraft acquiring in-situ microphysical measurements are used to characterize the relationship between radar measurements and ice microphysical properties. The data were obtained from the Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS. Direct measurements of the condensed water content as well as coincident Doppler radar measurements were acquired, facilitating improved estimates of ice particle mass, a variable that is an underlying factor for calculating and therefore retrieving the radar reflectivity (Z_(e)), median mass diameter (D_(m)), particle terminal velocity, and snowfall rate (S). The relationship between the measured ice water content (IWC) and that calculated from the particle size distributions (PSD) using relationships developed in earlier studies, and between the calculated and measured radar reflectivity at the four radar wavelengths, are quantified. Relationships are derived between the measured IWC and properties of the PSD, D_(m), Z_(e) at the four radar wavelengths and the dual-wavelength ratio. Because IWC and Z_(e) are measured directly, the coefficients in the mass-dimensional relationship that best match both the IWC and Z_(e) are derived. The relationships developed here, and the mass-dimensional relationship that uses both the measured IWC and Z_(e) to find a best match for both variables, can be used in studies that characterize the properties of wintertime snow clouds.

Andrew Heymsfield↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Multi-Decadal Nitrogen Dioxide and Derived Products from Satellites (MINDS) Datasets Released by NASA GES DISC and Their Applications for Air Quality

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a pervasive air pollutant, comes from vehicles, power plants, industrial emissions, and off-road sources such as construction or lawn and gardening equipment. The NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) curates many remote sensing datasets with NO2 retrievals, which have been utilized for air quality research and applications. The remotely-sensed datasets include those generated by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite, the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P), and the Ozone Mapping and Profiling Suite (OMPS) Nadir-Mapper (NM) instrument on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S- NPP). In collaboration with the NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) Multi-Decadal Nitrogen Dioxide and Derived Products from Satellites (MINDS) project, the GES DISC recently released MINDS datasets. The NASA MEaSUREs MINDS project aims to develop long-term NO2 global data records by adapting a consistent retrieval algorithm to multiple instrument measurements. Long-term data records will be achieved by applying consistent retrieval approaches to multiple satellite instruments, including OMI (2004 - ); the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME, 1995-2011) onboard the second European Remote Sensing satellite (ERS-2); the Scanning Imaging Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography (SCIAMACHY, 2002-2012) onboard the ENVIronmental SATellite (ENVISAT); GOME-2 on the Meteorological Operational satellites (MetOp-A and MetOp-B, 2006 - ); and TROPOMI onboard the Copernicus S5P (2017 - ). The long-term record (1995 to present) of MINDS datasets makes them very useful for air quality trend studies. Some MINDS datasets with high spatial resolution of only a few kilometers can be used for air quality research and applications at regional scales. In this presentation, we will introduce all of the MINDS products and services, and demonstrate use cases of MINDS data for studying air quality. We will also present a few other NO2 datasets acquired from NASA’s Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team (HAQAST), to be archived and distributed by the GES DISC, and highlight some of their applications for air quality and health.

Feng Ding↗
NASA NTRS2023

Electrification Within Wintertime Stratiform Regions Sampled During the 2020/2022 NASA IMPACTS Field Campaign

Two nor'easter events—sampled during the NASA Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS) field campaign—were examined to characterize the microphysics in relation to the underlying electrification processes within wintertime stratiform regions. A theoretical model was developed to determine whether accretion or diffusion growth regimes were preferential during periods of greatest electrification. Model simulation with electrification parameterization was used to provide supplemental context to the physical processes of in-cloud microphysics and electrification. The strongest electric fields (i.e., ∼80 V m −1 at 20 km) during the 2020 NASA IMPACTS deployment was associated with large non-rimed ice crystals colliding with each other. During the 29–30 January 2022 science flight, the NASA P-3 microphysical probe data demonstrated that non-inductive charging was possible off the coastline of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Later in the science flight, when the NASA P-3 and ER-2 were coordinating with each other, measured electric fields consistently were less than 8 V m −1 and electrification was subdued owing to reduced concentrations of graupel and large ice hydrometeors. Altogether, the in-situ observations provide evidence for the non-riming collisional charging mechanism and demonstrates that graupel and supercooled liquid water may not be necessary for weak electrification within wintertime stratiform regions. Model output from simulation of both events suggested that the main synoptic snowbands were associated with elevated hydrometeor snow charge density and electric fields.

snowfall↗
NASA NTRS2022

Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS): the 2022 Deployment

The Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS) is a NASA-supported field campaign to study snowstorms particularly over the northeastern United States. Snowfall within these winter storms is often organized in banded structures that can vary on multiple scales. The goals of IMPACTS are to characterize the spatial and temporal scale of snowbands, understand the processes controlling the structure and evolution of the bands and apply this knowledge to improving remote sensing and numerical modeling. IMPACTS takes place over three winter seasons, 2020, 2022 and 2023. IMPACTS flies two aircraft: the ER-2 equipped with satellite-simulating remote sensing instruments; and the P-3 equipped with in situ microphysics probes and environmental instrumentation. Stationary and mobile radar facilities and mobile sounding teams round out the observational assets. The preliminary results from the 2022 deployment are highlighted here.

Lynn A McMurdie↗
NASA NTRS2023

Airborne Lightning Observatory for FEGS and TGFs (ALOFT)

The ALOFT campaign is a unique suborbital campaign to advance the science of highenergy radiation emissions from thunderstorms, validate existing spaceborne lightning mappers and evaluate design concepts for next-generation mappers, and study convection from a suborbital platform. ALOFT is a collaboration between NASA, the University of Bergen, and other institutions that will fly the ER-2 aircraft over tropical thunderstorms around the Gulf of Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. The payload will consist of lightning detectors, gamma-ray scintillators, and a mixture of passive and/or active microwave sensors. Supporting the flights will be a diverse groundbased network of lightning instruments spread across the region of interest.

Nikolai Ostgaard↗
NASA NTRS2022

Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer 3 (AVIRIS-3)

The Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer 3 (AVIRIS-3) is the third of the NASA AVIRIS spectrometer series and is being developed in parallel with the Compact Wide-swath Imaging Spectrometer II (CWIS-II) for the University of Zurich, Switzerland. The core spectrometer of AVIRIS-3 is a copy of the optically fast, F/1.8 Dyson imaging spectrometer used by the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) that is in development and scheduled for launch to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2022. AVIRIS-3 is intended to provide state-of-the-art imaging spectroscopy measurements for NASA science and application through the next decade and beyond. AVIRIS-3 uses the EMIT spectrometer design interfaced with a scaled two mirror telescope enclosed in a portable vacuum vessel to enable measurements from airborne platforms ranging from a Twin Otter to a business jet or a NASA ER-2. AVIRIS-3 is a cryogenic instrument with advanced system control and real-time onboard spectroscopic data processing algorithms evolved from AVIRIS-NG. The spectral range of AVIRIS-3 is 380 to 2500 nm with 7.4 nm sampling. The radiometric range is from 0 to max terrestrial Lambertian radiance with higher signal-to-noise ratio performance than AVIRIS-Classic or AVIRIS-Next Generation. The spatial field-of-view is 39.5 degrees with 0.56 milliradian sampling. This paper describes the design and development of AVIRIS-3 and presents its characteristics in comparison to the previous generation imaging spectrometers.

Helmlinger, Mark↗
NASA NTRS2023

PCRTM-RA Enhancements for Improving CO Retrievals Using NAST-I Measurements From the FIREX-AQ Field Campaign

The Principal Component-based Radiative Transfer Model Retrieval Algorithm (PCRTM-RA) for carbon monoxide (CO) retrieval has been improved for better use of National Airborne Sounder Testbed-Interferometer (NAST-I) measurements obtained during the Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) field campaign. One of the explicit purposes of the campaign was to characterize wildfire-induced atmospheric changes. Coincidental measurements from various airborne instruments including NAST-I infrared hyperspectral measurements from the NASA ER-2 aircraft provided us an opportunity to test and improve the PCRTM-RA CO retrieval. By relaxing the vertical correlation of CO profiles in the a-priori covariance constraint, a significant improvement in the vertical structure of the CO retrieval has been confirmed. The methodology is validated using a synthetic testing dataset that covers observations associated with various CO vertical profiles including that of an extremely polluted atmosphere. The methodology is also applied to real NAST-I measurements, and the results have successfully demonstrated the capability of using PCRTM-RA retrieval results for CO plume evolution and transport monitoring.

Carbon monoxide (CO)↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The ALOFT Campaign: Why and how we did it

ALOFT is a collaborative field campaign that used the NASA ER-2 in July 2023 to hunt for gamma-rays and lightning in tropical thunderstorms

Timothy Lang↗
NASA NTRS2022

Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ)

The NOAA/NASA Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) experiment was a multi-agency, inter-disciplinary research effort to: (a) obtain detailed measurements of trace gas and aerosol emissions from wildfires and prescribed fires using aircraft, satellites and ground-based instruments, (b) make extensive suborbital remote sensing measurements of fire dynamics, (c) assess local, regional, and global modeling of fires, and (d) strengthen connections to observables on the ground such as fuels and fuel consumption and satellite products such as burned area and fire radiative power. From Boise, ID western wildfires were studied with the NASA DC-8 and two NOAA Twin Otter aircraft. The high-altitude NASA ER-2 was deployed from Palmdale, CA to observe some of these fires in conjunction with satellite overpasses and the other aircraft. Further research was conducted on three mobile laboratories and ground sites, and 17 different modeling forecast and analyses products for fire, fuels and air quality and climate implications. From Salina, KS the DC-8 investigated 87 smaller fires in the Southeast with remote and in-situ data collection. Sampling by all platforms was designed to measure emissions of trace gases and aerosols with multiple transects to capture the chemical transformation of these emissions and perform remote sensing observations of fire and smoke plumes under day and night conditions. The emissions were linked to fuels consumed and fire radiative power using orbital and suborbital remote sensing observations collected during overflights of the fires and smoke plumes and ground sampling of fuels.

Carsten Warneke↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Hunting Energetic Radiation from Thunderstorms

The true nature and mechanisms of terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) have remained mysterious since their discovery in the 1990s. Despite decades of detections, their violent origins and irregularity make them particularly difficult to observe directly. Combined with the wide range of measured characteristics, this has kept the details of these energetic events in the dark. The recent ALOFT (Airborne Lightning Observatory for FEGS and TGFs) campaign has undertaken the challenge of hunting these elusive flashes from an airborne platform. This was performed by the NASA ER-2 aircraft in July 2023 equipped with a host of meteorological, electric field, and gamma-ray instruments to study intense tropical thunderstorms and their connection to gamma-ray production. Here we present on the campaign's success alongside some of its exciting preliminary results.

Lightning↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

COSMIR-H: an Airborne Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder for Thermodynamic Sensing of the Planetary Boundary Layer

The NASA Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) Incubation Study Team Report lists hyperspectral microwave (HMW) sensors as one of the “essential components” of a future global PBL observing system. HMW sensors will provide profiles of the PBL thermodynamic (temperature and water vapor) structure in synergy with passive infrared sounders and to complement active measurements (e.g., lidar and radar). While many simulation studies have been performed showing the benefit of HMW observations, measurements are needed to demonstrate the efficacy of hyperspectral retrievals. The Conical Scanning Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (CoSMIR) is an airborne sensor that is currently being modified with digital spectrometers to create a HMW sounder with 4-MHz spectral resolution at 50.0-58.0 GHz and 175-191 GHz. The new CoSMIR-Hyperspectral (CoSMIRH) will collect measurements in July 2024 on the highaltitude NASA ER-2 aircraft. These measurements will advise on current knowledge gaps in HMW sounding and inform decisions on future spaceborne HMW sensors

radiometry↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Reanalysis of Fly's Eye GLM Simulator (FEGS) Optical Pulse Detections from the 2017 GOES-R Post Launch Test (GOES-R PLT) Field Campaign

In 2017, the GOES-R PLT field campaign was conducted to validate new instruments on board GOES-16, including the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM). A NASA ER-2 high altitude aircraft was equipped with a sensor suite including FEGS and an electric field change meter (EFCM) for complementary observations of lightning. As part of a modern reanalysis, we plan to combine aircraft and ground observations from the lightning instrumentation and polarimetric Doppler radars for a more complete characterization of optical lightning measurements in the context of convective properties. This presentation focuses on our initial efforts which include a reanalysis of the FEGS multi-spectral optical waveforms using an updated pulse detection algorithm and a comparison of detected pulses with coincident EFCM and Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) data. We will present on characteristics of discharge processes including leaders, strokes, and continuing current signatures as observed by the suite of aircraft and ground-based lightning instrumentation.

T Daniel Walker↗
NASA NTRS2026

Ice in Convective Storm Environments: Assessing Impacts of Microphysics on Simulated Reflectivities

Satellite radar retrievals of clouds and precipitation rely on assumptions about the microphysical properties of hydrometeors such as particle size distributions (PSDs) and massdimensional relationships, which have been shown to vary in distinct environments. A deeper understanding of linkages between mass-dimensional relationships, ice crystal shape, and radar reflectivities across cloud and precipitation regimes is necessary for developing new retrievals for upcoming satellite radar missions, including the INvestigation of Convective UpdraftS (INCUS), as well as future missions that will feature space-borne radars observing clouds, convection, and precipitation. This study investigates ice microphysical characteristics through aircraft in-situ and remote sensing observations from two convective events during the Mid-latitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) in the Southern Great Plains, and tests implications for ice particle habit in forward modeled radar observations. During MC3E, the Ka/Ku- band High Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (HIWRAP) was onboard the NASA ER-2 aircraft, while in-situ measurements were taken onboard the University of North Dakota Citation. In-situ PSDs and particle shape information from optical array probe data are used to forward model radar reflectivities from particle scattering databases and are compared against HIWRAP reflectivities. Various particle combinations can be used to find agreement with HIWRAP observations, and the forward modeled reflectivities were sensitive to particle type. Varying the riming on the aggregate and graupel particles resulted in larger than 10 dB differences in reflectivities. The in-situ and radar observations imply the occurrence of aggregation, size sorting and lofting particles.

Julia A. Shates↗
NASA NTRS1996

Imaging Radar for Ecosystem Studies

Recently a number of satellites have been launched with radar sensors, thus expanding opportunities for global assessment. In this article we focus on the applications of imaging radar, which is a type of sensor that actively generates pulses of microwaves and, in the interval between sending pulses, records the returning signals reflected back to an antenna.

radar sensors global assessments ERS-1 ERS-2 JERS-↗