WB-57 - JSC

The VIPS is an electro-optical instrument used to collect and record a continuous sample of cloud particles down to 5 um. Particles are collected continuously on a looped belt coated with silicone oil. The portion of the belt exposed to the airstream is imaged by two very high resolution charged coupled device (CCD) shuttered video cameras with different resolutions. The resulting imagery is available for real-time, in-flight evaluation of cloud conditions and for post-flight habit classification and spectra analysis.

The VIPS system is composed of two parts: (1) an electro-optical collection and imaging unit mounted in a standard particle measurement system (PMS) can, and (2) data acquisition and recording components. Aperture width of the collection subassembly is adjustable for varying flight conditions. The CCD imaging cameras are coupled with inline, high detail video enhancers. Particle imagery is recorded continuously at 30 Hz on high-resolution Hi-8 VCRs. Images are also captured at 1 Hz, digitized in real-time and recorded on an Apple PowerPC.

ULH measures water vapor at high accuracy in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere to meet the following science objectives:

1. validation and scientific collaboration with NASA earth-monitoring satellite missions, principally the Aura satellite, http://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov/

2. observations of stratospheric trace gases in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere from the mid-latitudes into the tropics,

3. sampling of polar stratospheric air and the break-up fragments of the air that move into the mid-latitudes, The ULH flights on Global Hawk will advance the state of the art technologically with remote command and control. ULH will provide real-time in-situ stratospheric water vapor measurements from Global Hawk. Additionally, ULH will make continuous measurements during long-duration flights up to 33 hours, which would be impossible with manned aircraft.

The advantages of ULH over other hygrometers are:

• Small and lightweight instrument package,
• No outgassing (achieved by mounting the open-path optical cell in the free air stream),
• Fast time response measurements in and out of clouds, without contamination,
• Accurate with a low detection limit <1 ppmv.

The TWiLiTE instrument is a compact, rugged direct detection scanning Doppler lidar designed to measure wind profiles in clear air from 18 km to the surface. TWiLiTE operates autonomously on NASA research aircraft (ER-2, DC-8, WB-57, Global Hawk). Initial engineering flight tests on the NASA ER-2 in 2009 demonstrated autonomous operation of all major systems. TWiLiTE will be reconfigured to fly on the NASA Global Hawk as part of the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel Venture Class Mission.

The SP2 is a laser-induced incandescence instrument primarily used for measuring the refractory BC  (rBC) mass content of individual accumulation-mode aerosol particles. It is able to provide this data product independently of the total particle morphology and mixing state, and thus delivers detailed information not only about BC loadings, but also size distributions, even in exceptionally clean air. The instrument can also provide the optical size of individual particles containing rBC, and identify the presence of materials associated with the BC fraction (i.e. identify the rBC’s mixing state). Since its introduction in 2003, the SP2 has been substantially improved, and now can be considered a highly competent instrument for assessing BC loadings and mixing state in situ.  NOAA deploys multiple SP2s with different designs: the first was built for the WB-57F research aircraft. Two others are rack-mounted units customized at NOAA; one of the rack mounted units can be humidified, and has been deployed with a paired dry rack-mounted SP2 as the "Humidified-Dual SP2" (HD-SP2). The rack mounted units are suitable for in-cabin operations.

The Scanning High-resolution Interferometer Sounder (S-HIS) is a scanning interferometer which measures emitted thermal radiation at high spectral resolution between 3.3 and 18 microns The measured emitted radiance is used to obtain temperature and water vapor profiles of the Earth's atmosphere in clear-sky conditions. S-HIS produces sounding data with 2 kilometer resolution (at nadir) across a 40 kilometer ground swath from a nominal altitude of 20 kilometers onboard a NASA ER-2 or Global Hawk.

The SAFS instruments determine wavelength dependent actinic flux from 280-420 nm. The actinic flux in combination with the absorption cross section and quantum yield molecular data will be used to calculate the photolysis frequencies of multiple photochemically important molecular processes, including O3, NO2, HONO, CH2O, H2O2, CH3OOH, HNO3, PAN, CH3NO3, CH3CH2NO3, and CH3COCH3.

The SAFS measurement is based on a 2p steradian hemisphere hemispherical quartz light collector, a double monochromator, and a low dark current photomultiplier. The monochromator employs dual 2400 G/mm gratings which produce a 1 nm FWHM spectral resolution and very low straylight. The instrument package on the aircraft includes two independent, but time synchronized (IRIG-B) spectroradiometer systems to measure the up- and down-welling fluxes in a 10 second scan time. Summing these produces the spherically integrated actinic flux.

Wild Heerbrugg RC-10 Mapping Cameras with a 9 x 9 inch image format are flown on virtually every ER-2 earth imaging mission. The RC-10s may be employed with six or twelve inch focal length lenses providing image scales of two miles to the inch and one mile to the inch respectively. RC-10 mounting stations include the ER-2 Q-bay, nose pod and the right and left wing pods.