NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets has developed an ultra-wideband radar that operates over the frequency from 2 to 8 GHz to map near-surface internal layers in polar firn with fine vertical resolution. The radar has also been used to measure thickness of snow over sea ice. Information about snow thickness is essential to estimate sea ice thickness from ice freeboard measurements performed with satellite radar and laser altimeters. This radar has been successfully flown on NASA P-3 and DC-8 aircraft.

The Particle Into Liquid Sampler (PILS) was developed for rapid automated on-line and continuous measurement of ambient aerosol bulk composition. The general approach is based on earlier devices in which ambient particles are mixed with saturated water vapor to produce droplets easily collected by inertial techniques. The resulting liquid stream is analyzed with an ion chromatograph to quantitatively measure the bulk aerosol ionic components. In this instrument, a modified version of a particle size magnifier is employed to activate and grow particles comprising the fine aerosol mass. A single jet inertial impactor is used to collect the droplets onto a vertical glass plate that is continually washed with a constant water diluent flow of nominally 0.10 ml min-1. The flow is divided and then analyzed by a dual channel ion chromatograph. In its current form, 4.3 min integrated samples were measured every 7 min. The instrument provides bulk composition measurements with a detection limit of approximately 0.1 µg m-3 for chloride, nitrate, sulfate, sodium, ammonium, calcium, and potassium.

Droplet Measurement Technologies (DMT) Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2). Signle particle measurement of accumulation-mode refractory black carbon (rBC) mass concentrations based on laser-induced incancescence.   

The UC-Irvine research group collected whole air samples aboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the summer 2019 NASA Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments Experiment - Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) field mission. More than 70 trace gases were identified and quantified at our Irvine laboratory, including C2-C10 NMHCs, C1-C2 halocarbons, C1-C5 alkyl nitrates, and selected sulfur compounds using our established technique of airborne whole air sampling followed by laboratory analysis using gas chromatography (GC) with flame ionization detection (FID), electron capture detection (ECD), and mass spectrometric detection (MSD). Our experimental procedures build on those that have been successfully employed for numerous prior NASA field missions, for example PEM Tropics A and B, TRACE-P, INTEX-A and B, ARCTAS, DC-3, SEAC4RS, ATom, KORUS-AQ, and SARP.

Estimation of surface wind speed by matching the shape of the reflected GPS signal correlation function against analytical models. Wind speed obtained from this method has agreed with that recorded from buoys with a bias of less than 0.1 m/s, and with a standard deviation of 1.3 m/s.

A modified GPS receiver is used to track the direct line of sight satellites through a zenith-oriented right hand circularly polarized (RHCP) antenna and record the cross-correlation function of the reflected signals using a nadir-oriented left hand circularly polarized (LHCP) antenna. The cross-correlation for one or two satellites is continuously recorded in 10 to 12 range bins. Accumulation is done in hardware for an integration time of 1 ms. Batches of 0.1 seconds of the sum square of the inphase and quadrature components are then averaged before being saved to disk.

In early 2000, the Ames Atmospheric Radiation Group completed the design and development of an all new Solar Spectral Flux Radiometer (SSFR). The SSFR is used to measure solar spectral irradiance at moderate resolution to determine the radiative effect of clouds, aerosols, and gases on climate, and also to infer the physical properties of aerosols and clouds. Additionally, the SSFR was used to acquire water vapor spectra using the Ames 25-meter base-path multiple-reflection absorption cell in a laboratory experiment. The Solar Spectral Flux Radiometer is a moderate resolution flux (irradiance) spectrometer with 8-12 nm spectral resolution, simultaneous zenith and nadir viewing. It has a radiometric accuracy of 3% and a precision of 0.5%. The instrument is calibrated before and after every experiment, using a NIST-traceable lamp. During field experiments, the stability of the calibration is monitored before and after each flight using portable field calibrators. Each SSFR consists of 2 light collectors, which are either fix-mounted to the aircraft fuselage, or on a stabilizing platform which counteracts the movements of the aircraft. Through fiber optic cables, the light collectors are connected to 2 identical pairs of spectrometers, which cover the wavelength range from (a) 350 nm-1000 nm (Zeiss grating spectrometer with Silicon linear diode array) and (b) 950 nm - 2150 nm (Zeiss grating spectrometer with InGaAs linear diode array). Each spectrometer pair covers about 95% of the incoming solar incident irradiance spectrum.

SIMPL is an advanced-technology airborne laser altimeter developed through NASA’s ESTO Instrument Incubator Program. Simultaneously measures surface topography, roughness and slope as well as scattering properties to differentiate surface types. SIMPL is a technology and remote sensing pathfinder for next-generation, high-efficiency, spaceflight laser altimeters. Developed with a focus on ice sheet elevation and its change, sea ice thickness and its change, and icy moon surface processes.

The TAMMS is composed of several subsystems including: (1) distributed pressure ports coupled with absolute and differential pressure transducers and temperature sensors, (2) aircraft inertial and satellite navigation systems, (3) a central data acquisition/processing system, and (4) water vapor instruments and potentially other trace gas or aerosol sensors.

THOR stands for THickness from Offbeam Returns. This Lidar system is designed to estimate the thickness of clouds by measuring the size of the reflected halo resulting from a laser entering a cloud. A refractive telescope with approximately 7.5-inch (19.05-centimeter) aperture is used to gather the returned light and collect it into a custom designed fiber optic bundle. The fiber optic bundle routes specific sections of the light focused by the telescope into ten Hamamatsu detectors.