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Antarctica vulnerable to extreme events
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By European Space Agency
Image: The southern lights at Concordia station in Antarctica View the full article
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A scientific balloon is inflated during NASA’s 2023 Antarctic campaign in McMurdo, Antarctica. NASA/Scott Battaion NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program has returned to Antarctica’s icy expanse to kick off the annual Antarctic Long-Duration Balloon Campaign, where two balloon flights will carry a total of nine missions to near space. Launch operations will begin mid-December from the agency’s Long Duration Balloon camp located near the U.S. National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station on the Ross Ice Shelf.
“Antarctica is our cornerstone location for long-duration balloon missions, and we always look forward to heading back to ‘the ice,’” said Andrew Hamilton, acting chief of NASA’s Balloon Program Office at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. “It’s a tremendous effort to stage a campaign like this in such a remote location, and we are grateful for the support provided to us by the U.S. National Science Foundation, New Zealand, and the U.S. Air Force.”
This year’s Antarctic campaign includes investigations in astrophysics, space biology, heliospheric research, and upper atmospheric research, along with technology demonstrations. The campaign’s two primary missions include:
GAPS (General Anti-Particle Spectrometer), led by Columbia University in New York, is an experiment to detect anti-matter particles produced by dark matter interactions. The anti-particles stemming from these interactions in our galaxy can only be observed from a suborbital platform or in space, since Earth’s atmosphere shields us from the cosmic radiation. GAPS aims to provide an unprecedented level of sensitivity to certain classes of anti-particles, allowing the exploration of a currently unexplored energy regime of the elusive dark matter. Salter Test Flight Universal, led by NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, will test and validate long-duration balloon and subsystems, while supporting several piggyback missions on the flight. Piggyback missions, or smaller payloads, riding along with the Salter Test Flight Universal mission include:
MARSBOx (Microbes in Atmosphere for Radiation, Survival, and Biological Outcomes Experiments), led by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, will expose melanized fungus, called Aspergillus niger, to the stratosphere’s extreme radiation and temperature fluctuations, low atmospheric pressure, and absence of water — conditions much like the surface of Mars. Knowledge of how this fungus adapts to protect itself in this harsh environment could lead to the development of treatments to protect astronauts from high radiation exposure. EMIDSS-6 (Experimental Module for Iterative Design of Satellite Subsystems 6), led by National Polytechnical Institute − Mexico, is a technological platform with experimental design and operational validation of instrumentation that will collect and store data from the stratospheric environment to contribute to the study of climate change. SPARROW-6 (Sensor Package for Attitude, Rotation, and Relative Observable Winds – 6), led by NASA’s Balloon Program Office at NASA Wallops, will demonstrate relative wind measurements using an ultrasonic anemometer designed for the balloon float environment. WALRUSS (Wallops Atmospheric Light Radiation and Ultraviolet Spectrum Sensor), led by the Balloon Program Office at NASA Wallops, is a technology demonstration of a sensor package capable of measuring the total ultraviolet wavelength spectrum and ozone concentration. INDIGO (INterim Dynamics Instrumentation for Gondolas), led by the Balloon Program Office at NASA Wallops, is a data recorder meant to measure the shock, rotation, and attitude of the gondola during the launch, float, and landing phases of flight. Data will be used to improve understanding of the dynamics of flight and to inform the design of future components and hardware. The remaining two piggyback missions are led by finalists of NASA’s FLOATing DRAGON (Formulate, Lift, Observe, And Testing; Data Recovery And Guided On-board Node) Balloon Challenge, sponsored by the Balloon Program Office at NASA Wallops and managed by the National Institute of Aerospace. The challenge was created for student teams to design, build, and fly an autonomous aerial vehicle, deployed from a gondola during a high-altitude balloon flight. The teams’ student-built data vaults will be safely dropped from around 120,000 feet with the capability to target a specific landing point on the ground to manage risk. The missions participating in the Antarctic campaign are Purdue University’s Purdue DRAGONfly, and University of Notre Dame’s IRIS v3.
NASA’s zero-pressure balloons, used in the Antarctic campaign, are made of a thin plastic film and are capable of lifting up to 8,000 pounds of payload and equipment to altitudes above 99.8% of Earth’s atmosphere. Zero-pressure balloons, which typically have a shorter flight duration from the loss of gas during the day-to-night cycle, can support long-duration missions in polar regions during summer. The constant daylight of Antarctica’s austral summer and stable stratospheric wind conditions allow the balloon missions to remain in near space for days to weeks, gathering large amounts of scientific data as they circle the continent.
NASA’s Long Duration Balloon camp is located about eight miles from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station on Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf. NASA/Scott Battaion NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia manages the agency’s scientific balloon flight program with 10 to 15 flights each year from launch sites worldwide. Peraton, which operates NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, provides mission planning, engineering services, and field operations for NASA’s scientific balloon program. The Columbia team has launched more than 1,700 scientific balloons over some 40 years of operations. NASA’s balloons are fabricated by Aerostar. The NASA Scientific Balloon Program is funded by the NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate Astrophysics Division. NASA balloon launch operations from Antarctica receive logistical support from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs, which oversees the U.S. Antarctic Program.
For mission tracking, click here. For more information on NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/scientificballoons.
By Olivia Littleton
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va.
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Last Updated Dec 10, 2024 EditorOlivia F. LittletonContactOlivia F. Littletonolivia.f.littleton@nasa.govLocationWallops Flight Facility Related Terms
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The UAVSAR underbelly pod is in clear view as NASA’s Gulfstream-III research aircraft banks away over Edwards AFBNASA On a changing planet, where phenomena like severe hurricanes, landslides, and wildfires are becoming more severe, scientists need data to assess and model disaster impacts and to potentially make predictions about hazards. NASA’s C-20A aircraft is a significant asset that can carry key instruments for understanding the science behind these phenomena.
Based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, the C-20A is a military version of the Gulfstream III business jet and operates as an airborne science aircraft for a variety of Earth science research missions.
In October, the plane was deployed to fly over areas affected by Hurricane Milton. With winds of up to 120 miles per hour, the hurricane hit the Florida coast as a category 3 storm, and produced lightning, heavy rainfall, and a series of tornadoes. In the aftermath of the storm, the C-20A was outfitted with the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) instrument to collect detailed data about the affected flood areas.
“Our team focused specifically on inland river flooding near dense populations, collecting data that could help inform disaster response and preparation in the future,” said Starr Ginn, C-20A aircraft project manager. “By all indications, this rapid response to support Hurricane Milton recovery efforts was a successful coordination of efforts by science and aircraft teams.”
The Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar, UAVSAR, is prepared for installation onto NASA’s C-20A aircraft. THE UAVSAR uses a technique called interferometry to detect and measure very subtle deformations in the Earth’s surface, and the pod is specially designed to be interoperable with unmanned aircraft in the future. It will gather data from Gabon, Africa in September of 2023.NASA/Steve Freeman The UAVSAR was developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and uses a technique called interferometry to detect subtle changes to Earth’s surface. Interferometry uses the intersection of multiple wavelengths to make precise measurements. This detection system effectively measures the terrain changes or impacts before and after an extreme natural event.
When flown onboard an aircraft, radars like the UAVSAR can also provide more detail than satellite radars. “Where satellite instruments might only get a measurement every one to two weeks, the UAVSAR can fill in points between satellite passes to calibrate ground-based instruments,” Ginn said. “It takes data at faster rates and with more precision. We can design overlapping flights in three or more directions to detect more textures and motions on the Earth’s surface. This is a big advantage over the one-dimensional line-of-sight measurement provided by a single flight.”
The C-20A team also used the UAVSAR in October to investigate the Portuguese Bend landslide in Rancho Pales Verdes. The Portuguese Bend Landslide began in the mid- to late-Pleistocene period over 11,000 years ago. Though inactive for thousands of years, the landslide was reactivated in 1956 when a road construction project added weight to the top of it. Recently, the landslide has been moving at increasing rates during dry seasons.
NASA’s JPL scientists, Xiang Li, Alexander Handwerger, Gilles Peltzer, and Eric Fielding have been researching this landslide progression using satellite-based instruments. “The high-resolution capability of UAVSAR is ideal for landslides since they have relatively small features,” said Ginn. “This helps us understand the different characteristics of the landslide body.”
NASA flew an aircraft equipped with Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) flew above California fires on Sept. 3 and 10, 2020.NASA/JPL-Caltech The C-20A airborne observatory also provided crucial insight for studies of wildfire. The Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE), a multi-agency experiment led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, included flights of the C-20A. This experiment studied fire behavior and smoke.
“The airborne perspective allows FASMEE researchers to better understand fire behavior and smoke production,” said Michael Falkowski, program manager for NASA’s Applied Sciences Wildland Fire program. “Hopefully this data will help mitigate fire risk, restore degraded ecosystems, and protect human communities from catastrophic fire.”
Airborne data can inform how scientists and experts understand extreme phenomena on the ground. Researchers on the FASMEE experiment will use the data collected from the UAVSAR instrument to map the forest’s composition and moisture to track areas impacted by the fire, and to study how the fire progressed.
“We can explore how fire managers can use airborne data to help make decisions about fires,” added Jacquelyn Shuman, FireSense project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.
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Last Updated Dec 04, 2024 EditorDede DiniusContactErica HeimLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms
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By European Space Agency
A new European Space Agency-backed study shows that the extreme heatwaves of 2023, which fuelled huge wildfires and severe droughts, also undermined the land’s capacity to soak up atmospheric carbon. This diminished carbon uptake drove atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to new highs, intensifying concerns about accelerating climate change.
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By European Space Agency
Image: The icy landscape of Ross Island in Antarctica is featured in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image from 3 February 2024, during the austral summer. View the full article
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