NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Hycon HR-732 cameras are used to acquire high resolution photography in a 9 x 18 inch format. These cameras can be flown in pairs or one camera may be paired with an RC-10 mapping camera. The HR-732s acquire high resolution photography with twenty-four inch focal length lenses providing an image scale of half-mile to the inch. The large scale high resolution photography provided by these cameras is used by agencies such as the Forest Service for timber resource management and by the Fish and Wildlife Service for wetlands inventories and wildlife habitat mapping.

The IHFRI provides imaging (and spectral) information at a rate of 1000 frames per second for detection of ablation anomalies, flicker in bowshock emissions, spacecraft rotation, and wake.

This instrument consists of a 6 inch clear aperature f0.75/105 mm lens and 256 x 256 pixel intensified CCD camera. The field of view is 6.25 x 6.25 degrees, illuminating 11.5 x 11.5 mm of the photocathode of the intensifier. The intensifier phospher has a brief decay time constant of 0.8 ms, ideally suited to study the natural afterglow in rapidly moving targets. It can be equipped with a low dispersion 7 inch 300 l/mm grating, providing a spectrum from 500 nm (15.9 mm from zero order) to 900 nm (29.4 mm from zero order) just outside the field of view. Spectrum can be recorded by pointing away from the SRC and will help target acquisition by providing a ray directed to the zero order.

This pair of intensified cameras measure the total radiative output of the SRC during entry in the 400 - 900 nm band.

The INT instrument consists of four cameras, two on both sides of the aircraft, consist of a 50 mm f2.8 Nikon lens, an XX1332 image intensifier with large 48 mm photocathode, and a Sony handycam camcorder (recording of video output on Hi-8 tape in NTSC format - 640 x 480 pixels). The lens can be equipped with a low-dispersion grating to generate 1st and higher order spectra, each containing a fraction of the light. This facilitates the measurement of luminosity when the zero order image saturates.

ALLSKY is a wide field intensified camera with all-sky lens. It measures total radiative output in the 400 - 900 nm band.

This camera consists of a 15 mm f2.8 Canon lens, an XX1332 image intensifier with large 48-mm photocathode, and a Sony handycam camcorder (recording of video output on Hi-8 tape in NTSC format - 640 x 480 pixels). The field of view is about 160º when mounted so that the dome does not obstruct. Moonlight is blocked by covering the zenith part of the dome.

Provides spectral (and imaging) information at a rate of 1000 frames per second for detection of ablation anomalies, flicker in bowshock emissions, spacecraft rotation, and wake.

The instrument consists of a digital intensified CCD camera capable of 1000 frames per second, equipped with a 600 l/mm objective transmission grating.

The Ames digital imager is a cooled large format NikonTM1 D70 digital camera with a 70-300mm f5.6 Nikon lens. It is used hand-held behind a passenger window with exposure times 1/1000s. The camera uses a SONYTM ICX413AQ CCD detector with image format 3040 x 2014 pixels of size 7.8 microns. It measures total radiative output of the sample return capsule along its trajectory.

The AIM-IT instrument (Meteor Tracker) was developed for rapid pointing and meteor tracking. Its purpose is to image bright meteors in high resolution, searching for jets and other plasma ejections. During the 2001 Leonids, the instrument carried a light collection lens with a fiber optic connection to a spectrograph.

UAVSAR, a reconfigurable, polarimetric L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), is specifically designed to acquire airborne repeat track SAR data for differential interferometric measurements.

Differential interferometry can provide key deformation measurements, and is important for studies of earthquakes, volcanoes and other dynamically changing phenomena.

Using precision real-time GPS and a sensor controlled flight management system, the system can fly predefined paths with great precision (to be within a 10 m diameter tube about the desired flight track).

The radar is designed to be operable on a UAV (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle), but will initially be demonstrated on a NASA Gulfstream III. The radar is fully polarimetric, with a range bandwidth of 80 MHz (2 m range resolution), and a range swath greater than 16 km.

The antenna may be electronically steered along track to assure that the antenna beam can be directed independently, regardless of speed and wind direction.

Other features supported by the antenna include elevation monopulse and pulse-to-pulse re-steering capabilities that will enable some novel modes of operation. The system will nominally operate at 41,000 ft (13800 m).

The program began as an Instrument Incubator Project (IIP) funded by NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO). Since 2018, UAVSAR facility instrument suite has been enhanced with two additional bands: P-band (AirMOSS) and Ka-band (GLISTIN-A). The P-band capability was originally added in 2012 to support the EVS-1 AirMOSS mission to observe sub-canopy and subsurface root zone soil moisture. The modification was accomplished by replacing UAVSAR's L-band front-end electronics and antenna with components that operate at P-band (420-440 MHz). The Ka-band single-pass interferometric SAR capability (GLISTIN-A) was added through NASA's Advanced Instrument Technology Transition program (AITT). The horizontally polarized GLISTIN-A (35.62-35.70 GHz) instrument generates high-precision, high resolution, large-swath digital surface models for ice surface topography mapping.