The P-band radar has successfully completed two observations over Tonzi Ranch, California and is now embarking on the Costa Rica deployment to observe tropical forest biome in La Selva. In preparation for the open house to be held in Liberia, Costa Rica and organized by Costa Rica’s Centro Nacional de Alta Tecnologia (CeNAT), we have assembled a collection of outreach material including information on AirMOSS mission as well as relevant NASA spaceborne missions SMAP and GRACE. We’ve updated the AirMOSS banner stand to highlight the objective of AirMOSS mission by measuring root zone soil moisture to improve the estimate of North America’s net ecosystem carbon exchange. In addition to a technical seminar to be given by our Project Scientist, Dr. Mahta Moghaddam of University of Southern California, the entire deployment team will have the opportunity to interact with university and high school students.
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We completed this year’s radar and ground observation campaigns as the last flight was flown over Walnut Gulch on the night of October 23.
The L-band radar flew over the Napa Valley earthquake area on October 20 to observe post-seismic activities. Journalists from the Discovery Channel of Canada was onboard the flight with UAVSAR Principal Investigator, Andrea Donnellan to film a news segment for the “Future Tech” series featuring UAVSAR. Data acquired on that flight were processed within a week and browse interferogram showed post-seismic fault slippage on the order of 6 cm since our last observation on August 29. This preliminary result (see attached image) was presented at the UAVSAR workshop last week.
During the October campaign, the CARVE team successfully executed 6 flights and accumulated nearly 40 flight hours. Flights to western Alaska in particular showed that there were still strong surface-atmosphere emissions of CO2 and CH4 despite freezing surface conditions.
Also this week, CARVE's team received correspondence from the Proceeding of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), which has given final approval for publication of "Methane emissions from Alaska in 2012 from CARVE airborne observations"
The Armstrong C-20/G-III with UAVSAR flew up to Moffett Field, CA to support Ames Research Center’s open house, the first open house since 1997. The Ames Research Center 75th Anniversary Open House was attended by over 150,000 enthusiastic visitors. The Armstrong aircraft is one of six aircrafts on display and the only operational research aircraft. Seven people from UAVSAR (including flight crew and two radar representatives) were on hand to greet visitors for over 10 hours. The exhausted but proud crew reported that visitors appreciated the event
We are conducting the last set of observations of the year over Oklahoma and Walnut Gulch, AZ. We successfully conducted three observations over MOISST (Marena, OK) and two over Walnut Gulch
We are conducting the last set of observations of the year over Oklahoma and Walnut Gulch, AZ. We successfully conducted three observations over MOISST (Marena, OK) and two over Walnut Gulch.
During the October campaign, the CARVE team successfully executed 6 flights and accumulated nearly 40 flight hours. Flights to western Alaska in particular showed that there were still strong surface-atmosphere emissions of CO2 and CH4 despite freezing surface conditions.
Also this week, CARVE's team received correspondence from the Proceeding of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), which has given final approval for publication of "Methane emissions from Alaska in 2012 from CARVE airborne observations"
We have resumed flights on September 19 where we acquired calibration data over Rosamond corner reflector array and one flight over Tonzi Ranch. Science team members from USC are conducting field work at Tonzi Ranch this week.
For the week of 8 September to 14 September, CARVE flew two flights which included, Fort Yukon, and the lower Kuskokwin valley. During the flight over the Kuskokwin valley, CARVE acquired very high CO2 and CH4. On 13 September, CARVE concluded the successful September campaign.