NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Post

NASA is running a massive project to analyze snow formation inside clouds. A team of 300 scientists, meteorologists and aircraft crew members spent three years taking radar and lidar (a type of laser scanning) measurements of ice particles, water droplets and temperatures inside clouds. The analysis of that data should help atmospheric scientists better predict where and when snowstorms will hit. Why this matters: Predicting where snowstorms will drop the most snow remains a difficult task. How snow forms inside a cloud is complicated and real-time analysis is difficult. Future analyses of the NASA data could show how the structure of snow clouds changes over time, and therefore when storms might form. What the experts say: Simply identifying which physical processes are at play in a looming storm can help forecasters make better predictions, says Brian Colle, a Stony Brook University atmospheric scientist who worked on the new monitoring program.

NASA and industry partners are working towards a future that sees aviation meet cleaner sustainability standards. To that end, new designs for the airplanes of tomorrow, such as the Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) concept shown in the image above, are currently being tested by researchers and engineers. The TTBW is essentially a classic tube-and-wing passenger aircraft whose wings are extremely long and thin – so much that they need a little help to hold them up. By narrowing the thickness of the wings and extending their length, drag is reduced, and 5-10% less fuel is burned than comparable narrowbody aircraft. This image was created using data from a computational fluid dynamics simulation – essentially a virtual wind tunnel test. The red and orange areas represent higher drag, and the green and blue areas represent lower drag. Note the beautifully sleek green-blue color of the wings – the colors of Earth. https://lnkd.in/gS6mmRBk

Earlier this week, my team’s research paper from this summer was published on the NASA Technical Reports Server. Our Ad-Hawk system explores the use of commercially available hardware to establish an aerial network using UAS wherever needed. Such a network could be used in the aftermath of disasters (such as wildfires) to allow for communication, resource management, logistics, etc. where wireless infrastructure has been destroyed or was previously nonexistent. Check out our paper at the link below! https://lnkd.in/gkyv9xr4

Winglets - a trick that saved >10 billion gallons of #fuel and cut CO2 #emissions by >130 million tons over the last 3 decades "Forty-four years ago this July, NASA began testing a technology that would become one of the agency’s most visible and beneficial contributions to commercial #aviation – winglets, the upturned ends of #airplane #wings. Inspired by the way birds curl their wingtip feathers upward, this innovation was developed by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Langley, Virginia. After testing this design in wind tunnels there, winglets proved to be effective in flight tests at what is now NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. (...) On July 24, 1979, the first winglet test flight took off from NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, which is now NASA Armstrong. The test program was a joint effort between NASA and the Air Force, which supplied the KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft, a modified version of the Boeing 707 jetliner. Over the course of 48 test flights, winglets proved to reduce wingtip drag, increasing fuel efficiency by 6% to 7%. Winglets began appearing on commercial and business jets in the early 1990s." https://lnkd.in/dJ-AJeqe

For those in hardware development, publishing a paper is always a noteworthy milestone. I'm pleased to share our recent publication on PALS, an advanced L-band instrument integrating both active (radar) and passive (radiometer) technologies in support of the SMAP mission. PALS offers enhanced precision in measuring soil moisture and ocean salinity, contributing to better Earth observation and climate studies. This instrument represents significant progress in our understanding of the Earth's water cycle and climate variability. The development of PALS involved addressing numerous technical challenges, from achieving the necessary accuracy in measurements to effectively combining radar and radiometer systems. The successful implementation of this instrument showcases the expertise and dedication of our team. Many thanks to Mehmet Ogut for leading the effort and the Hardware development and writing the paper. Our work on PALS not only advances remote sensing technology but also provides valuable data that can improve weather forecasts, inform agricultural practices, and enhance environmental monitoring. This paper highlights our ongoing commitment to pushing the boundaries of Earth observation and contributing to the scientific community. For more details, you can read the abstract here:https://lnkd.in/g73Hn9e9

NASA's Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite is the first satellite to carry a Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn), a new instrument designed to capture precise measurements of the height of both the ocean and freshwater bodies (i.e., lakes, reservoirs, and rivers). The calibration and validation of new instruments like KaRIn often requires a novel approach. In our newest Data Chat, Dr. Shailen Desai, NASA’s Measurement System Engineer for the SWOT mission, discusses the challenges and concerns associated with the calibration and validation of KaRIn, as well as how SWOT differs from previous altimetry missions, and the benefits of releasing SWOT’s calibration and validation data to the user community. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/ee2ZHPrv

Space Mission Design and Operations Course Learn the concepts used in the design of space missions, manned or unmanned, and operations, based on the professional experience of the lecturer. https://lnkd.in/dpx37CKi

NASA selects Ball Aerospace to build instrument for NOAA observation constellation The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sought a provider to build a hyperspectral infrared sounding instrument for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) program. They found their solution from Ball Aerospace in Broomfield, Colorado. GeoXO will collect data on weather patterns and ocean color, replacing and expanding on NOAA's current Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series (GOES-R). The Ball-built GeoXO Sounder (GXS) will provide 3D profiles of the atmosphere over North America in real-time, enhancing numerical weather prediction models to better predict dangerous weather events like tornadoes and hurricanes, and help airlines avoid turbulence and monitor pollutants like ozone and carbon monoxide in the air. Once launched, GXS will be the first hyperspectral infrared sounder flown by the United States in geostationary orbit. "This long-awaited instrument will serve as an essential tool in improving the safety of our communities, the health of our residents and our understanding of extreme weather”. GXS will allow forecasters to track tornadoes and floods as they develop to provide earlier warnings to residents, and the higher resolution and frequency of atmospheric measurements will contribute new insights about the way weather patterns form. We're excited to continue our partnerships with NOAA and NASA on GXS and to support this important mission.

Launching tomorrow morning from sunny California...USSF-62 - First Weather System Follow-on (WSF) satellite. This mission will improve weather forecasting over maritime regions by taking global measurements of the atmosphere and ocean surface. #moreclimatedata #moredata #earthobservation The launch from Vandenberg SFB, California, USA, is scheduled for 7:25 AM PDT (14:25 UTC), and the flight is set to use a southbound trajectory that will take the payload into a Sun-synchronous polar orbit. (Date/Time subject to change.) WSF-M (Weather System Follow-on – Microwave) is the next-generation operational environmental satellite system for the Department of Defense (DoD), to replace the microwave wavelength weather forecasting capabilities of the DMSP satellites. Ball Aerospace has been selected in late November 2017 to be the prime contractor for 2 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) weather satellites with a passive microwave imaging radiometer instrument and hosted Government furnished energetic charged particle (ECP) sensor space weather payload developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory. The radiometer leverages the Ball-built Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI) instrument. To read more details about the flight or payloads: https://lnkd.in/gUDFcP3e SpaceX NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency National Weather Service California State Assembly California Legislative Analyst's Office URISA_International URISA Vanguard Cabinet URISA's GISCorps URISA's GISCorps #urisa #calurisa #calgis #climatescience #datascience #earth