1. NASA Airborne Sensor Facility Ames Research Center UARC Moffett Field, CA
Jeff Myers
UCSC
NASA Ames UARC

2. The NASA Airborne Science Program
Supports the Earth Science Division, Research and Analysis Program at NASA H.Q.
Conducts Remote Sensing and In Situ Airborne Missions for Satellite Cal/Val & Process Studies
Provides “Flying Laboratories” to Host NASA, Univ. & Other Govt. Agency Experiment Packages
Maintains a Suite of Calibrated Remote Sensing Devices for Community Use.

3. NASA Airborne Sensor Facility
Resides at the University-Affiliated Research Center under the
NASA Ames Earth Science Division
Staffed by Univ. of California, Santa Cruz
Joint funding from the Airborne Science and EOS Programs
Provides Earth science mission support through:
- Facility Sensor Operations
- Instrumentation Development
- Sensor Maintenance and Calibration
- Airborne communications systems development
(Sensor Web implementation)
- Data Processing and Archive
Ames Research Center

4. Airborne Sensor Facility Staff
Contract NAS
Tasks 028, 029, 87-R, 88-R
Ames Research Center
Earth Science Division
Task Manager:
J. Myers
Deputy for Operations:
B. Coffland
Admin. Assistant:
D. Gribschaw
Sensor Engineering
& Calibration
Data Processing
& Analysis
Lead: P. Grant
T. Hildum, Staff Scientist
C. Sorenson, Engineer [DFRC]
J. Forgione, Engineer
T. Ellis, Engineer (Cal Lab)
J. Bush, Sensor Technician
R. Billings, “
D. Gearhart, “ [DFRC]
K. Dunwoody, “ [DFRC]
F. Newman, “ [JSC]
Lead: R. Dominguez
H. Su, Sr. Data Analyst
N. Clinton, Sr. Data Analyst
J. Zheng, Software Engineer
E. Fraim, Data Analyst
R. Billings, Data Analyst/technician
S. Fegan, Network Admin.
P. Windham, “ “
Key Interfaces
NASA: UARC:
-Task Requestor: R. Berthold Operations Manager: K, Al Ali
-Alt. Task Requestors: J. Brass, Purchasing: P. Pancoast,
M. Fladeland Human Resources: E. Sylvan
-Contracting Officer: M. Lefler P-Card/Travel: S. Henry
May, 2008

5. ASF: Recent and Ongoing Projects
J-31 CAR Integration
Global Hawk Payload Data System
Experiment Interface Panels
Network Hub
Telemetry and Payload Computer
AMS Ikhana UAS (Wildfire)

6. NASA Facility Instrumentation at the Ames Airborne Sensor Facility
MODIS and ASTER Airborne Simulators (MAS & MASTER)
UAS AMS (Autonomous Modular Sensor System)
Precision Geo-Positioning Hardware (Applanix POS-AV 510 & 610)
Electro-Optic and Film Cameras
AMS Sensor
POS-AV IMU / DGPS
DCS Camera

7. Ames Research Center

8. MODIS Airborne Simulator
Simulates the EOS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (Terra & Aqua)
Supports the MODIS Science Team and other multi-disciplinary investigations
Flown on ER-2 aircraft
Spectrometer Spectral Range µm Number Nominal
of Bands Bandwidth µm

9. MAS & MASTER Data Collections: Costa Rica TC4
Key Point: Level-2 products and MVIS video generated same-day at the deployment site for the Mission Scientists
DC-8 Contrail
Field-Generated Level-2
Data Products
(with GSFC MODIS Cloud Team)
MAS IR Composite
Nadir Temp. Product

10. MASTER: The MODIS-ASTER Airborne Simulator
Simulates both the EOS Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission Reflection
Radiometer and MODIS
Automated Geo-Location/Rectification
Flown on B-200, ER-2, Caravan, WB-57, DC-8 aircraft
Spectrometer Spectral Range µm Number Nominal
of Bands Bandwidth µm
Mount St. Helens: 3 meter MASTER Data + 1 meter LIDAR DEM

11. AMS: The UAS Autonomous Modular Sensor
Configurations for Land Surface, Ocean Color, and Atmospheric Mapping
Automated geo-rectification and onboard data product generation
Real-Time data telemetry
Compatible with large UAS (Predator-B, Altair, Global Hawk) or conventional aircraft
General Atomics Altair UAV
Wild Fire Research
Ocean Color / Coral Reef Research
Hurricane and Atmospheric Studies
ASTL
Ames Research Center

12. Autonomous Modular Sensor: Western States Fire UAS Missions
Poomacha Fire
10/28/07

13. Global Hawk UAS Payload Communications & Control System
Instrument Power & Control
PI Hardware
Payload Instruments
Aircraft HW
Interface Panels (8)
Master Payload Control System & PDU
Ethernet
Link Module (Database & Telemetry I/O)
Network Host
AIRCRAFT
GROUND
Iridium (4 ch)
Ku-Band Sat-Com
Iridium (2 ch)
Global Hawk Ground Operations Center
Web-Based Users
GHOC Link Server
Flight Deck
Pilot’s MPCS GUI
Experimenter Workstations
Visualization Tools

14. ASF Sensor Calibration Lab
NASA Spectral and Radiometric Calibration Facility for Airborne Sensors
Spectral Range = 350nm – 14um
NIST-Traceable, with NASA EOS Program Oversight
Currently supporting:
AMS, MAS and MASTER
SSFR (Solar Flux Radiometer)
AATS-14 (Sun Photometer)
CAR (Cloud Radiometer)
Field Spectro-Radiometers
Headwall HSI
Transfer Radiometer
NIST Ref. Paper:
Radiometric Validation of NASA ARC Calibration Laboratory, S. Brown, C. Johnson, et al. Applied Optics/Vol.44, No. 30, Oct. 2005
Optical Bench & Collimator
Integrating Spheres
Spectral Sources

15. Reference Websites General Information & Flight Requests
MASTER web page
MAS web page
Airborne Sensor Facility web page