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Payload Configuration
A presentation showing updated payload configuration is available in the following formats:
PowerPoint (2.5MB)
Instruments
Sensor Package
The final integrated sensor package and operational goals are described in this presentation.
Slide presentation (html)
Download the PowerPoint Presentation (~5.8MB)Ocean Color Sensor and Fisheries Management
Ocean color will be measured with a multi-channel optical radiance sensor. Remote sensing of ocean color provides high resolution chloraphyll-a concentration data. Chloraphyll-a is a measure of the primary productivity in the upper ocean layer, which affects all ocean life. The oceans take up about 30% of all anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Understanding CO2 uptake is an important goal of the Carbon America Program within the NOAA climate goal. The information obtained should help to improve estimates of primary productivity and hence provide better fisheries management.
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Passive Microwave Sounder and Atmospheric Rivers
The pre-cold-frontal low-level jet (LLJ) in land-falling extratropical cyclones that approach the West Coast of the United States each winter plays a critical role in transporting water vapor into the coastal mountains, resulting in orographic enhancement of precipitation that can generate devastating flooding. The LLJ represents the boundary-layer component of a deeper corridor of concentrated water vapor transport in the pre-cold-frontal environment. A key hypothesis that this study will begin to test is that a significant fraction of the water vapor found in an atmospheric river at midlatitudes originates in the tropical water vapor reservoir and is entrained into extratropical cyclones. Because these corridors tend to be quite narrow (<1000 km wide) relative to their length scale (>2000 km), and yet are responsible for almost all of the meridional water vapor transport at midlatitudes they are referred to as atmospheric rivers. In addition to causing flooding rains in the coastal mountains and playing a critical role in the global water cycle, atmospheric rivers are integrally tied to water resource issues in the semi-arid West, where a majority of snowfall in the higher elevations ultimately
provides fresh water to the population.
Atmospheric rivers are narrow channels of high-valued water vapor content that are responsible for almost all of the water vapor transport from the tropics to the midlatitudes. Upon being entrained into landfalling storm systems, these features can contribute to the development of flooding rains in the coastal mountains. Atmospheric rivers are also integrally tied to water resource issues in the semi-arid West, where a majority of snowfall in the higher elevations ultimately provides fresh water to the population.Slide presentation (html)
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Digital Camera System (DCS) and Electro-Optical Infrared (EO/IR) Sensor
The Altair UAV will use a Digital Camera System (DCS) and an Electro-Optical Infrared (EO/IR) Sensor to demonstrate how operational needs could be met in future UAV flights. The DCS will be used in shoreline mapping and in along-shore/inland feature characterization for habitat mapping/ecosystem monitoring. The EO/IR system will be used for day/night fisheries surveillance and enforcement, and marine mammal surveys. The demonstration will focus on the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of California.
REVEAL: Research Environment for Vehicle-Embedded Analysis on Linux
The desired future for Earth science observation activities involving suborbital uninhabited and eventually autonomous vehicles is characterized as highly adaptive, interactive, intelligent, yet also very affordable. The corresponding objective for REVEAL/Altair is to mature sensor-web oriented approaches that enable greater return on investment in the use of UAVs for suborbital Earth science observation campaigns.
The REVEAL instrument on Altair is a vehicle-independent, dynamically reconfigurable, prototype strap-down instrumentation system built on open standards and designed for applicability across a broad class of airborne sensor web applications. REVEAL provides the traditional (manned) airborne laboratory support items, such as data acquisition and distribution, state parameters, and networking infrastructure, but with far less size, weight and power consumption than previous systems. Self-contained with internal sensors (inertial reference system, GPS, instrument-grade accelerometer and clinometer), heater, GPS splitter, UPS, and power/temp/pressure/humidity monitoring, it also has external interfaces for analog, serial, video, and avionics buses. REVEAL on Altair leverages Iridium satellite connectivity so that geographically distributed researchers can maintain situational awareness of vehicle and instrument states in near realtime.
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Download the PowerPoint Presentation (~ 6.5MB)Gas Chromatograph -- Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Chromatograph for Atmospheric Trace Species (UCATS)
A gas chromatograph (GC) built specifically to operate on the Altair UAV will make in situ measurements of the long-lived gases sulfur hexafluoride (SF6 ), nitrous oxide (N2O), the halogenated gases CFC-11, CFC-12, and H-1211 every 70 seconds. All of these gases are radiatively active in the atmosphere and, hence, contribute to anthropogenic climate forcing. The distribution of N2O and the halogenated gases influence the chemical loss of ozone, in part because the halogenated gases contain chlorine and bromine atoms. Measurements of these gases in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere reachable by Altair will demonstrate the value of UAV technology in understanding the distribution of these important gases and how their distribution and abundances are changing and will change in the future.
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Download PowerPoint Slide (~1.1MB)Ozone Instrument (OZ)
Ozone will be measured through optical absorption. Ozone is a key radiatively active trace gas and is produced photochemically in both the troposphere and stratosphere. In the stratosphere, ozone protects life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. Halogenated gases released in human activities lead to ozone depletion throughout the stratosphere. Ozone in the troposphere is formed in natural chemical reactions and in reactions caused by the presence of anthropogenic emissions. Understanding how ozone is produced and destroyed in the atmosphere is key to making accurate predictions of future ozone amounts.
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