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07/13/2017

The Next Generation Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-NG) is currently supportin the NASA Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE). This has been a successful week of flying for the AVIRIS-NG team. 

Current Google Earth Image of all flight lines (red), lines

collected successfully (green), and lines with clouds (yellow).

07/13/2017

The Airborne Snow Observatory began July surveys of select basins of the eastern Sierra Nevada for the California Department of Water Resources.  These surveys were especially important to DWR as nearly all of the conventional ground snow sensors have melted out and are no longer providing data.  ASO is therefore the only source of insight into the snow depth of the remaining snow in the upper elevations of the Sierra Nevada.

06/22/2017

AVIRIS-NG has been flying from the Burbank Airport for the NASA Funded Methane Survey flights on the commercial King Air from Dynamic Aviation.  From Thursday June 14 to Tuesday June 20 a large amount of AVIRIS-NG data has been collected across the State of CA over Diaries, Gas Infrastructure, and Petroleum Refineries.

AVIRIS-C has been flying on the NASA ER-2.   The flights on the ER-2 are for the fifth year of HyspIRI CA flights.  Data was collected over Tahoe June 20 and Santa Barbara June 19.    

06/22/2017

The L-band radar aboard the AFRC C-20A aircraft is on the ABoVE deployment in Fairbanks, AK to survey permafrost and boreal forest sites in Northern Canada and Alaska.  So far we have flown 7 of the 8 planned science flights over sites in Northwest Territories of Canada and throughout Alaska including Bonanza Creek, Denali, Katmai, and Lake Clark National Parks, Yukon Delta, Seward Peninsula, and Delta Junction.  On Wednesday, we will be imaging permafrost sites in North Slope, AK.

Quick look polarimetric color composite of the area along the Tanana River near Delta Junction

06/15/2017

The Classic Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-C) has been flying the HyspIRI CA collections on the NASA ER-2 from Armstrong Palmdale Hangar 703.   In the last week collections have occurred over the Santa Barbara Box (June 8), Southern CA Box (June 12), Yosemite Box (June 6) and Bay Area Box (June 13).  The Santa Barbara Box will need to be recollected due to cloud cover.   The Associate Administrator, Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, visited the HyspIRI deployment on Friday, June 8.

The King Air and AVIRIS-NG flew targets on Tuesday, June 13, and then headed West towards Saint Louis for an overnight before traveling to Burbank on Wednesday, June 14.   There will be local flights from Burbank as part of the CA Methane Survey this week.

06/15/2017

ASO completed its June 1 California surveys of the Tuolumne, San Joaquin, Lee Vining and Rush Creek basins.  Support and funding for these surveys came from NASA’s Western Water Applications Office.  After California, ASO surveyed the Rio Grande and Conejos basins for the Colorado Water Conservation Board.

ASO and SnowEx were featured on the cover the June 11, 2017 LA Times Sunday edition along with a stellar long form article. (Photo attached.)  The digital version of the story is here:

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-snowex-snowpack-forecast-study-20170611-htmlstory.html

06/15/2017

Flight Paths of the 8 CPEX Science Flights Flown to Date

At present, a total of eight science flights have been completed for CPEX. The various flights paths are shown in the image above, sampling a variety of precipitating conditions, with a base out of Fort Lauderdale, FL. 

06/15/2017

Seven science flight lines en route to Yellowknife, Canada were successfully acquired despite a glitch to the radar transmitter during the first flight line.  UAVSAR will fly a local flight on Wednesday in Northwest Territories, Canada (see flight plan entitled: Great Slave Lake) before transiting to Fairbanks, AK for the remainder of the deployment.

06/13/2017

ASO has begun June 1 snow surveys in the Sierra Nevada, including the Tuolumne, San Joaquin, Lee Vining, and Rush Creek basins.  This effort is being supported by the Western Water Applications Office.

06/13/2017

On Monday May 29, we flew orthogonal lines over Newport News, VA and land.  All PRISM flight data (KEY01-03) was copied onto a ship disk prior to landing.This concludes the PRISM airborne data collection phase of the CORAL project.

Since May 25, there have been five science flights over the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and the western Atlantic Ocean, with another ten flights expected by the end of the campaign on June 26. Mounted on the port inboard pylon of the DC-8, the MTHP observes the vertical atmospheric state ahead of the aircraft by scanning continuously. The MTHP has been performing nominally.

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