. 24/7 Space News .
EARTH OBSERVATION
NASA's High-Altitude Plane Takes to the Sky for GOES-16 Field Campaign
by Kyle Herring for NOAA News
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 12, 2017


View from the NASA ER-2 high-altitude aircraft cockpit: Sonoran Desert coastline during ABI validation flight on March 23. Image courtesy NASA. For a larger version of this image please go here. Watch a video on the technology here.

A NASA ER-2 high-altitude plane has taken to the air to complete phase one of the 11-week GOES-16 Field Campaign to ensure NOAA's GOES-16 satellite provides precise satellite measurements, which will improve forecasting. The mission? Ensure that NOAA's GOES-16's Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instruments are "seeing" the same targets as the plane's instruments.

Why? Because, to put it simply, GOES-16's data has to be as well-calibrated and accurate as possible-lives depend on it. "Are you seeing what I am seeing?" Flying out of Palmdale, California, NASA's ER-2 high-altitude plane and its suite of highly-specialized instruments took to the air over the Sonoran Desert in Mexico (the largest dessert in the Western Hemisphere) and the Mojave Desert in Ivanpah, California on March 23 and 28 to validate GOES-16's ABI- the satellite's primary instrument.

The plane made several passes over the large and spatially uniform desert regions, collecting an enormous amount of data and clocking nearly 18 hours of flight time. In a highly-coordinated effort, each time the plane passed over a designated region of desert, scientists used the ABI to perform a series of special north-south scans of the corresponding area.

The plan seems simple enough, right? Collect two sets of data, compare the data, and see how well they match. However, validating a satellite's imager, especially one as advanced as the ABI, is not so easy.

Before the data from the high-altitude plane and GOES-16's ABI can be compared and analyzed, scientists must first verify that the plane's instruments are accurate. To do this, two teams of scientists took to the desert to collect data using an array of ground sensors during various segments of the plane's flight. NOAA even enlisted the help of its own NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite.

Phase one of the field campaign was timed so that the polar-orbiting satellite's path would intersect with the high-altitude flights. By using proven, operational data from the Suomi NPP satellite and measurements gathered by hand in the desert, scientists were able to ensure that their measuring stick, the NASA ER-2 high-altitude plane, is accurate.

The real trick was doing this all at the same time.

What's next?
With this complex dance of scientists, satellites, and planes complete and data collected, there is still work to do. Scientists are currently analyzing the data from this first phase while simultaneously preparing for the second phase of the field campaign.

On April 11, NASA's ER-2 aircraft will fly from Palmdale, California to Warner Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. From there, the GOES-R team will initiate the next phase which will occur from April 12 to May 18.

During this period the plane will make similar flights over the eastern United States and adjacent oceans to check the data collected by GOES-16's Geostationary Lightning Mapper instrument. The plane is scheduled to fly in lightning-producing storms over both land and ocean while the satellite monitors them from space.

Previously, during a test flight on March 21, nearly seven hours of data were collected over severe lightning-producing storms east of the San Francisco Bay area. These data were collected simultaneously with ground-based lightning detection networks and a lightning imager on the International Space Station. Similar sensors will be used during phase two to verify the satellite's data.

NASA successfully launched NOAA's GOES-R satellite at 6:42 p.m. EST on November 19, 2016 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and it was renamed GOES-16 when it achieved orbit. GOES-16 is now observing the planet from an equatorial view approximately 22,300 miles above the surface of the Earth.

GOES-16, one of the GOES-R series of satellites will help meteorologists observe and predict local weather events, including thunderstorms, tornadoes, fog, flash floods, and other severe weather. In addition, GOES-16 will monitor hazards such as aerosols, dust storms, volcanic eruptions, and forest fires and will also be used for space weather, oceanography, climate monitoring, in-situ data collection, and for search and rescue.

EARTH OBSERVATION
Solar Storms Can Drain Electrical Charge Above Earth
Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 12, 2017
New research on solar storms finds that they not only can cause regions of excessive electrical charge in the upper atmosphere above Earth's poles, they also can do the exact opposite: cause regions that are nearly depleted of electrically charged particles. The finding adds to our knowledge of how solar storms affect Earth and could possibly lead to improved radio communication and navigation s ... read more

Related Links
GOES-R satellite
Earth Observation News - Suppiliers, Technology and Application


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


Comment using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

EARTH OBSERVATION
You Say Tomato, I Say Tomatosphere: ISS Science to the Classroom

NASA Invests in 22 Visionary Exploration Concepts

No Roscosmos plans to send space tourists to ISS before 2020

US, Russian Astronauts Prepare for April Crew Swap on Space Station

EARTH OBSERVATION
Dream Chaser to use Europe's next-generation docking system

Europe's largest sounding rocket launched from Esrange

Bezos sells $1 bn in Amazon stock yearly to pay for rocket firm

US-Russia Venture Hopes to Sell More RD-180 Rocket Engines to US

EARTH OBSERVATION
Chile desert combed for clues to life on Mars

Russia critcal to ExoMars Project says Italian Space Agency Head

New MAVEN findings reveal how Mars' atmosphere was lost to space

Potential Mars Airplane Resumes Flight

EARTH OBSERVATION
Yuanwang fleet to carry out 19 space tracking tasks in 2017

China Develops Spaceship Capable of Moon Landing

Long March-7 Y2 ready for launch of China's first cargo spacecraft

China Seeks Space Rockets Launched from Airplanes

EARTH OBSERVATION
Ukraine in talks with ESA to become member

BRICS States Want to Expand Cooperation to Space Science

Mitsubishi Electric to Build New Satellite Production Facility

Horizon 2020 European funded DEMOCRITOS project concludes work with some key outcomes

EARTH OBSERVATION
Despite EU fines, Greece struggling to promote recycling

New method for 3-D printing extraterrestrial materials

Ultra-thin multilayer film for next-generation data storage and processing

USC Viterbi researchers develop new class of optoelectronic materials

EARTH OBSERVATION
Distantly related fish find same evolutionary solution to dark water

'Body awareness' offers further proof of elephant intelligence

'Smart' cephalopods trade off genome evolution for prolific RNA editing

Exoplanet mission gets ticket to ride

EARTH OBSERVATION
When Jovian Light and Dark Collide

Neptune's journey during early planet formation was 'smooth and calm'

Hubble takes close-up portrait of Jupiter

Neptune's movement from the inner to the outer solar system was smooth and calm









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.