High-flying science jet lands at Wright-Patterson
June 24, 2009 Filed in: Wright-Patterson
AFB
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
One of only two NASA ER-2 airborne science jets arrived at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base today, alighting gently on glider-like wings after a seven-hour flight from Edwards Air Force Base in California with some observation work on the way.
| View slide show |
ER-2 pilot
Tim Williams climbed out of the ER-2 in his yellow
pressure suit, already perspiring under a hot sun. He
greeted NASA ER-2 Project Engineer Robert Navarro,
part of the ER-2 support team that came to
Wright-Patterson from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research
Center ahead of Williams.
The civilian version of a Lockheed Martin U-2 spy plane, the ER-2 will stage science flights from Wright-Patterson for about a month as NASA overflies targets in the Northern and eastern United States for scientists who are studying forest growth for clues to global warming and climate change.
The public should get a glimpse of the white, long-winged jet Friday evening during the Freedom’s Call Tattoo at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. The ER-2 is scheduled to make a fly-by along with current and historic military aircraft.
Williams said he cruised at about 65,000 feet, far higher than commercial airliners fly. “It was very clear over the Cascades,” he said. “At that altitude, they’re beautiful.”
He said had mixed luck with the science objectives on today’s flight. The jet was carrying two science instruments in its wing-mounted pods. One is AVIRIS, short for Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer. It collects spectroscopic images of forest cover. The other is the Cloud Physics Lidar, which collects data about clouds.
Williams said one objective was to fly over a bank of clouds at the same time a science satellite was overhead, studying the same clouds from earth orbit. Scientists can use the ER-2 data to gauge the accuracy of the space-based sensor, he said.
But clouds are only a nuisance to AVIRIS, which needs s clear view of the ground to do its work. Williams said one of the areas he was to image was clear until the last moment, when a cloud obscured the target and refused to go away.
Related story: NASA to launch research flights from Wright-Patterson AFB
The civilian version of a Lockheed Martin U-2 spy plane, the ER-2 will stage science flights from Wright-Patterson for about a month as NASA overflies targets in the Northern and eastern United States for scientists who are studying forest growth for clues to global warming and climate change.
The public should get a glimpse of the white, long-winged jet Friday evening during the Freedom’s Call Tattoo at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. The ER-2 is scheduled to make a fly-by along with current and historic military aircraft.
Williams said he cruised at about 65,000 feet, far higher than commercial airliners fly. “It was very clear over the Cascades,” he said. “At that altitude, they’re beautiful.”
He said had mixed luck with the science objectives on today’s flight. The jet was carrying two science instruments in its wing-mounted pods. One is AVIRIS, short for Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer. It collects spectroscopic images of forest cover. The other is the Cloud Physics Lidar, which collects data about clouds.
Williams said one objective was to fly over a bank of clouds at the same time a science satellite was overhead, studying the same clouds from earth orbit. Scientists can use the ER-2 data to gauge the accuracy of the space-based sensor, he said.
But clouds are only a nuisance to AVIRIS, which needs s clear view of the ground to do its work. Williams said one of the areas he was to image was clear until the last moment, when a cloud obscured the target and refused to go away.
Related story: NASA to launch research flights from Wright-Patterson AFB
0 Comments
