The L-band radar aboard the Armstrong C-20A jet successfully completed the Delta-X fall campaign on 7 September.  In all we conducted 7 flights, imaging Atchafalaya Basin, East and West Terrebonne Basin in high tide and receding tide.  We were co-flying with AirSWOT aboard the Dynamic Aviation B-200 based at Port Arthur, TX.  Data have already been returned to JPL and processing is well underway.

During the Delta-X deployment, we managed to acquire post-Hurricane Ida data over the City of New Orleans on 31 August and the severely affected area just east and south of Terrebonne Basin on several flights.  It was a great opportunity to leverage Delta-X campaign to support disaster response and management.  As it turns out the most useful data we were able to provide for this event were the oil slick images just south of Port Fourchon, where many oil rigs were damaged by the hurricane.   An example of UAVSAR’s oil slick detection is showcased in a JPL Press Release:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-delta-x-helps-with-disaster-response-in-wake-of-hurricane-ida

In addition, we worked with NOAA Satellite and Information Service (NESDIS) to develop a protocol for generating Marine Pollution Surveillance Report (MPSR) for future oil spill response events.  

The JPL QUAKES team collected SWIR imagery of the Caldor fire in California in a flight with UAVSAR in the ASFC Gulf Stream.

Panoramic view of a portion of the Caldor flight (roughly 30 seconds).
The SWIR camera is able to view through much of the smoke so that
hot spots can be found (a comparable visible image is entirely obscured by smoke).

The Delta-X fall campaign is well underway. The fall campaign is meant to capture the hydrodynamics and vegetation patterns of the region while the Mississippi River discharge is near its lowest point and when vegetation has reached its peak biomass. Delta-X already captured the highest annual river discharge when herbaceous vegetation is just starting to grow in the Spring. 

AVIRIS-NG flew 4 flights over the last week, starting on August 18^th, and completed Atchafalaya vegetation and water quality lines. It also flew Terrebonne vegetation and water quality lines, nearly completing the Terrebonne West vegetation lines. Image below shows quick look image of AVIRIS-NG lines over Wax Lake Delta in the Atchafalaya basin.

AirSWOT also flew 4 flights: over Atchafalaya high & receding tide and Terrebonne East & West high tide to measure water surface elevation.

Together, AirSWOT and AVIRIS-NG flew 3 joint flights. UAVSAR is scheduled to join the campaign on Saturday August 28^th flying on the ARFC G-III.

Field teams and have been taking measurements on the ground coincident with the airborne instruments as much as possible. Water Quality (Boston University) team collected water samples as well as reflectance to coincide with AVIRIS-NG overflight. The Islands Team (Caltech and University of Texas) collected depth profiles, sediment profiles, as well as water samples and ADCP transects (i.e. river discharge measurements) to complement data collected by the ADCP (JPL and University of North Carolina) and Water Quality teams.

The Vegetation Team (Florida International University) collected vegetation samples (pictured below), root and soil cores, and characterized subplot representativeness.

The JPL QUAKES team is conducting the first flight test of the QUAKES-I instrument over Southern California. The flight plan covers the highest and lowest points in California, earthquake faults in the state’s interior and some coastal zones. The visible imagery collected by the instrument will be processed into a geo-rectified 3D terrain map and point cloud for use in understanding plate tectonics and other surface phenomenon.