WB-57 - JSC

Ozone (O₃) in the lower stratosphere (LS) is responsible for absorbing much of the biologically damaging ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sunlight, and thus plays a critical role in protecting Earth's environment. By absorbing UV light, O₃ heats the surrounding air, leading to the vertical stratification and dynamic stability that define the stratosphere. Halogen species from anthropogenic compounds such as CFCs can cause significant damage to the O₃ layer in the LS and have led to the formation of the Antarctic ozone hole. Accurate measurement of O₃ in the LS is the first step toward understanding and protecting stratospheric O₃. The UAS Ozone Photometer was designed specifically for autonomous, precise, and accurate O₃ measurements in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UT/LS) onboard the NASA Global Hawk Unmanned Aircraft System (GH UAS) and other high altitude research platforms such as the ER-2 and WB-57. With a data rate of 2 Hz, the instrument can provide high-time-resolution, detailed information for studies of O₃ photochemistry, radiation balance, stratosphere-troposphere exchange, and air parcel mixing in the UT/LS. Furthermore, its accurate data are useful for satellite retrieval validation.  Contacts: Troy Thornberry, Ru-Shan Gao

Ozone (O3) in the lower stratosphere (LS) is responsible for absorbing much of the biologically damaging ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sunlight, and thus plays a critical role in protecting Earth's environment. By absorbing UV light, O3 heats the surrounding air, leading to the vertical stratification and dynamic stability that define the stratosphere. Manmade halogen compounds, such as CFCs, cause significant damage to the O3 layer in the LS and lead to the formation of the Antarctic ozone hole. Accurate measurement of O3 in the LS is the first step toward understanding and protecting stratospheric O3. The Ozone Photometer was designed specifically for autonomous, precise, and accurate O3 measurements in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UT/LS). Flown for thousands of hours onboard the NASA ER-2, NASA WB-57, and NSF GV high-altitude aircraft, this instrument has played a key role in improving our understanding of O3 photochemistry in the UT/LS. Furthermore, its accurate data has been used, and continues to be highly sought after, for satellite validation, and studies of radiation balance, stratosphere-troposphere exchange, and air parcel mixing. Contacts: Ru-Shan Gao, David Fahey, Troy Thornberry, Laurel Watts, Steve Ciciora

SPEC previously built the Version 1 and Version 2 HVPS probes that have now been discontinued due to obsolete parts and significant advances in technology. The HVPS-3 uses the same 128-photodiode array and electronics that are used in the 2D-S and 2D-128 probes. The optics are configured for 150 micron pixel resolution, resulting in a maximum field of view of 1.92 cm (i.e., particles up to 1.92 cm are completely imaged, although even larger particles can be sized in the direction of flight).

Sample volume of the HVPS-3 is 400 L s-1 at 100 m s-1. The 2D-S or 2D-128 and HVPS make an excellent pair of probes that completely image particles from 10 microns to 1.92 cm.

The Cloud Droplet Probe (CDP), manufactured by Droplet Measurement Technologies, measures the concentration and size distribution of cloud droplets in the size range from 2-50 µm. The instrument counts and sizes individual droplets by detecting pulses of light scattered from a laser beam in the near-forward direction, using a sample area of 0.24 mm2 or a sample rate of 48 cm3 at a flight speed of 200 m/s. The probe is mounted in an underwing canister and is designed to operate at up to 200 m/s; the G-V often exceeds this flight speed, but usually not in penetrations of clouds containing cloud droplets. Droplet sizes are accumulated in 30 bins with variable sizes, as specied in the header of the netCDF data files. Measurements are usually provided at a rate of 1 Hz in the standard data files but can be made available at 10 Hz in special high-rate processing. The instrument is similar to, and might be considered a high-speed replacement for, the Forward Scattering Spectrometer Probe. At high droplet concentration (> 500 cm-3), coincidence losses have been observed with this probe, and these are especially serious at G-V flight speeds. The probe is designed for cloud droplets, and its response to ice crystals is not intended to be quantitative; measurements in ice clouds should not be used except as qualitative indications of cloud.

The WB-57 Ascent Video Experiment (WAVE) provides both ascent and entry imagery and enables better observation of the Shuttle on days of heavier cloud cover and areas obscured from ground cameras by the launch exhaust plume. WAVE comprises a 32-inch-ball turret system mounted on the nose of two WB-57 aircraft. The turret houses an optical bench, providing installation of both HDTV and infrared cameras. Optics consist of an 11-inch-diameter, 4.2 meter fixed-focal-length lens. The system can be operated in both auto track and manual modes.

The tunable diode laser (TDL) absorption instrument consists of a very high resolution scanning near-infrared diode laser spectrometer. The laser diode is a 3 mW single-mode distributed feedback (DFB) InGaAsP/InP laser that is cooled and temperature stabilized via a Peltier cooler. The laser is scanned in frequency by varying the injection current linearly. The resulting frequency scan covers the entire CH4 R(3) ro-vibrational transition in the 2ν3 overtone band at 1.653 μm.

Because the line strengths are very weak for this overtone transition, the laser beam is multipassed through a custom designed low volume astigmatic Herriott cell yielding a total optical pathlength of 245 m. The transmitted light is detected by a dc-coupled InGaAsP detector and digitized by a custom 20-bit A/D converter. This ADC is synchronized to the 16-bit software generated laser scan waveform running in continuous DMA mode. The laser scans continuously over the methane absorption at a rate of 0.25 - 0.5 KHz and coadds typically 100 scans in a 2 second integration time.

By use of the Beer-Lambert law, the methane number density is calculated from the direct absorption measurements. This calculation is performed by a non-linear least squares Voigt fitting program. The program constraints include the measured cell temperature and pressure in addition to the known absorption line strengths and pressure broadening coefficients associated with the three transitions that make up the R(3) lineshape.

The RC-30 is an airborne film camera system, using color infrared, natural color and black and white film, to obtain high resolution earth imagery.

The FSSP is of that general class of instruments called optical particle counters (OPCs) that detect single particles and size them by measuring the intensity of light that the particle scatters when passing through a light beam. A Helium Neon laser beam is focused to a diameter of 0.2 mm at the center of an inlet that faces into the oncoming airstream. This laser beam is blocked on the opposite side of the inlet with an optical stop, a "dump spot" to prevent the beam from entering the collection optics. Particles that encounter this beam scatter light in all directions and some of that scattered in the forward direction is directed by a right angle prism though a condensing lens and onto a beam splitter. The "dump spot" on the prism and aperture of the condensing lens define a collection angle from about 4º - 12º.

The beam splitter divides the scattered light into two components, each of which impinge on a photodetector. One of these detectors, however, is optically masked to receive only scattered light when the particles pass through the laser beam displaced greater than approximately 1.5 mm either side of the center of focus. Particles that fall in that region are rejected when the signal from the masked detector exceeds that from the unmasked detector. This defines the sample volume needed to calculate particle concentrations.