The website is undergoing a major upgrade that began Friday, October 11th at 5:00 PM PDT. The new upgraded site will be available no later than Monday, October 21st. Until that time, the current site will be visible but logins are disabled.

News

The Twin Otter research plane flies past RV Blissfully on sampling station. RV Blissfully’s surface light sensor is seen in the foreground. Photo by Bridget Seegers.

Twenty-one Hours a Day on a 30-Foot Floating Science Lab

Research Vessel (RV) Blissfully is a 30-foot sailboat that is the science lab and home for two sailing scientists, Captain Gordon Ackland and myself, ...

Read more
The turbid and complex waters of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta were visible during a spiral maneuver. Photo by Luke Ziemba.

Day-in-the-Life of a PACE-PAX Mission Flight

06:00 Local Time: Go/No-Go Meeting We are in the field supporting PACE-PAX (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment),...

Read more
Image of PACE detaching from its rocket on February 7, 2024. Photo by Kelsey Allen.

Sailing Away for PACE

Hello from sunny Santa Barbara, California, where the ship operations for the PACE-PAX campaign are underway! The PACE satellite went into orbit in Fe...

Read more
Members of the PACE-PAX team – from left to right, Cecile Carlson, Adam Ahern (NOAA), Dennis Hamaker (NPS), Luke Ziemba, and Michael Shook (NASA Langley Research Center) – in front of the Twin Otter aircraft as they prep for the start of the campaign. Credit: Judy Alfter/NASA

NASA Earth Scientists Take Flight, Set Sail to Verify PACE...

NASA - More than 100 scientists will participate in a field campaign involving a research vessel and two aircraft this month to verify the accuracy o...

Read more
G-IV airplane flies over Antelope Valley, California during June 2024

NASA G-IV Plane Will Carry Next-Generation Science Instrument

In June 2024, a new tail number swept the sky above NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Pilots conducted flights of a Gu...

Read more
NASA’s C-20A aircraft completed more than 150 hours of international science flights from May 20 to July 24 in support of an Earth science deployment series. The aircraft, owned and operated by NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, overcame several challenges throughout the missions. NASA/Carla Thomas

NASA Aircraft Gathers 150 Hours of Data to Better Understand...

Operating internationally over several countries this summer, NASA’S C-20A aircraft completed more than 150 hours of science flights across two mont...

Read more
A research scientist monitors data measurements in-flight during the spring campaign of the ARCSIX mission. NASA/Gary Banziger

NASA Returns to Arctic Studying Summer Sea Ice Melt

The NASA-sponsored Arctic Radiation Cloud Aerosol Surface Interaction Experiment (ARCSIX) mission is flying three aircraft over the Arctic Ocean north...

Read more

About the Airborne Science Program

 

The Airborne Science Program within the Earth Science Division is responsible for providing aircraft systems that further science and advance the use of satellite data. The primary objectives of this program are to:

  • Satellite Calibration and Validation
    Provide platforms to enable essential calibration measurements for the Earth observing satellites, and the validation of data retrieval algorithms.
  • Support New Sensor Development
    Provide sub-orbital flight opportunities to test and refine new instrument technologies/algorithms, and reduce risk prior to committing sensors for launch into space.
  • Process Studies
    Obtain high-resolution temporal and spatial measurements of complex local processes, which can be coupled to global satellite observations for a better understanding of the complete Earth system.
  • Develop the Next-Generation of Scientists and Engineers
    Foster the development of our future workforce with the hands-on involvement of graduate students, and young scientists/engineers in all aspects of ongoing Earth science investigations.

To meet these observing objectives ASP maintains and operates a suite of sustained, ongoing platforms and sensors on which investigators can rely from year to year. From these known capabilities the Science Mission Directorate can develop observing strategies. However, an ongoing capability will be resource-constrained and eventually technology-constrained, so that not all observing requirements will be met with the limited core capability. Therefore the program facilitates access to other platforms or sensors on a funds-available, as-needed basis, to accommodate unique and/or occasional requirements. The Program also looks for new or evolving technologies to demonstrate their applicability for Earth science. Depending on the success of the demonstrations and the observing needs, the core capability is expected to evolve and change over time. The speed and extent of change will be balanced against the need for established, known capabilities for long-term planning.