NASA/NOAA/DOE Collaboration for Improved Suborbital Earth Observation

Statement of the Problem:

In July 2003, representatives from 34 nations participated in the first Earth Observation Summit that resulted in a declaration that emphasized the need to significantly advance the collective ability for Earth observation. The President of the United States has challenged America's Earth Science community to take a leadership role in the development of an international Earth Observation System. The components of a future global system for Earth Observation will need to be an integrated suite of capabilities matched to four vantage points (surface-based, suborbital, near space, and far space) that each provide a unique perspective on the Earth. Current suborbital observations are limited by the operational capabilities of the airborne platforms of today (piloted aircraft, balloons, sounding rockets, airships) and difficult to fully integrate with surface or space-based data, leaving a gap between the synoptic view of fixed orbital and far-space assets and the local, point view of ground-based systems limited to continental regions.

Proposed solution

It is proposed that a collaboration between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Department of Energy (DOE) be established to provide the impetus for addressing the challenges of suborbital observations and bringing to bear advancing technologies, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as an integrated piece of the global observation network. This collaboration will bring to bear the knowledge, expertise, and resources of each agency in a synergistic manner that will respond to the President's challenge for America's Earth Science Community to take a leadership role in the developing the International Earth Observation System.

The Collaboration

Many critical federal, state and local government agencies rely on the unique observations, technologies, and research that NASA, NOAA and DOE provide. These include the U.S. Climate Change Science and Technology Programs, the U.S. Weather Research Program, coastal and ocean resources, interagency disaster mitigation efforts, Federal natural resources management initiatives, homeland security and infrastructure management. In recent months, scientists and policy makers on the front line of this field have proposed a broad-based Collaborative, starting with NASA, NOAA, and DOE. The intent of this "grass roots" effort is to provide innovative suborbital solutions to improve our understanding of climate change , medium-range weather prediction, and ecological change by enhancing global observations of Earth systems.

For a number of years, NASA has been involved in the development of UAV platforms suitable for scientific use. The Environmental Resources Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program provided the main focus in the development and flight demonstration of these unique platforms with a successful conclusion in September 2003. The results of this program prompted the initiation of a follow-on activity to continue the development of UAVs and science measurement techniques in cooperation between NASA's Earth Science Enterprise (Code Y) and Aeronautics Enterprise (Code R). The resulting capability will enable NASA to transition from their larger atmospheric research aircraft platforms to a family of UAVs that are flexible, cost effective and eventually more capable platforms. The development of these operationally flexible platforms will augment the in situ measurements to support the understanding of the Earth system through the integration of the measurements from the four vantages and scientific models.

The DOE has, for over a decade, sponsored the utilization of UAV platforms for obtaining key scientific measurements to assist in improving the understanding of the role clouds play in the distribution of solar energy and heating in the atmosphere. The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) and ARM-UAV Programs have developed important capabilities and unique science instruments for these platforms, thus acquiring an extremely valuable, long-term data set. In particular, the ARM-UAV Program has developed operational procedures and logistical arrangements to support scientific flight deployments using UAVs in remote regions, developed atmospheric research instruments suitable for flight on UAVs, and conducted 10 major flight campaigns since 1993.

NOAA has long recognized the need for high-resolution vertical profiles of the atmosphere in regions currently inaccessible by traditional deployable systems. Such profiles have not yet been reliably retrieved from fixed satellite systems, and even so, would need periodic calibration with deployable in-situ systems. One concept would be the utilization of long-endurance, high altitude UAVs capable of long oceanic transect flights and vertical profiling, either directly or with dropsondes, to augment the ocean surface and sub-surface measurements. This concept would provide a long-term data set to allow improvement of coupled ocean-atmosphere models . It has been estimated that wind measurements from UAVs could significantly improve global medium-range weather prediction. The operational requirements for weather forecasting, in addition to NOAA's roles in the Climate Change Science and Technology Program Office (CCSPO), identify a partnership role for NOAA in both requirements setting and as the future operator of ongoing observation systems.

Collaboration Approach & Near Term Actions

The primary goal of the collaboration is aimed at identifying, developing and proving suborbital capabilities that enable improved suborbital observations as part of a future Earth observation architecture (sensorweb). This will be done by a core interagency group of scientists and engineers working with the CCSPO and other stakeholders, with the initial focus on exploiting emerging UAV technology. The core team will lay out a suite of representative Earth observation missions that are needed to improve Earth system understanding; these science missions will be used to drive vehicle and operational system requirements; when the requirements have been implemented in a new suborbital observing platform, one or more demonstration missions will 09-Dec-2005 o establish the overall objectives and approach of the collaboration, along with the roles and responsibilities of the agency partners through the generation of an Interagency Memorandum of Agreement between NASA, NOAA, and DOE. The Collaboration will then sponsor a "Suborbital Earth Observation" Working Group meeting comprising of U.S. scientists and policy makers to help create near term options and future plans to utilize UAV technology to augment suborbital observations as part of an integrated earth observation system. The proposed implementation of these options and plans will be through a Joint Project Office comprising of representatives from NASA, NOAA, and DOE to ensure effective and efficient use of resources and the continued focus of advanced UAV technology in suborbital global observations.

Benefits/End State of the Collaboration

The knowledge, experience and resources of these three agencies will provide a foundation for the advancement and integration of UAVs as an integrated piece of the global observation network. Through the collaboration between NASA, NOAA, and DOE a synergistic approach may be taken which will maximize the benefits of each agency's contributions and form the basis for the establishment of a Working Group to assist in the near-term options and future plans of the Collaboration as they relate towards the development of an international Earth observation system through the utilization of UAV platforms as part of the suborbital global observation network.