NASA's DC-8 Flight Helps Validate New Technologies
July 10, 2013
Numerous instrument probes protrude from NASA's DC-8 Airborne Science flying laboratory as it flies an instrument checkout flight.
Image Credit:
NASA / Lori Losey
NASA's DC-8 airborne laboratory has flown Earth science missions for more than 25 years. The converted jetliner recently carried several instruments testing new technologies that could aid those missions, Global Positioning System accuracy and aviation safety in years to come.
Mark Beaubien, (left) of Yankee Environmental Systems, and Lee Harrison, of the State University of New York at Albany, prepare to dispense a soda-can sized dropsonde from NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory.
Image Credit:
NASA / Beth Hagenauer
One such instrument is the High Definition Sounding System comprised of dropsondes using long-range telemetry. The instrument was developed by Yankee Environmental Systems in western Massachusetts and funded by the Navy, NOAA and a Phase 1 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant through NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. Eight soda-can sized sondes were dispensed during flight, sending back data on pressure, temperature, humidity, winds and sea surface temperature.
Next phase of the dropsonde study will be flown in September on several NASA WB-57 flights when up to 96 sondes per flight will be automatically dispensed at high altitude. This research, which includes flights on NASA's P-3B flying laboratory, is leading up to installation on a NASA Global Hawk for the 2014 Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel mission.
http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-dc-8-flight-helps-validate-new-technologies/#.UeSXBxZbNEl
