Monday, August 3, 2009
Writer: Kimberly Draper
news@utsi.edu
UTSI Piper Navajo research aircraft in flight during testing of new airborne science sensor pod.
The University of Tennessee Space Institute Aviation Systems Program has recently completed flight testing of a new sensor pod on their Piper Navajo twin engine research aircraft. The aircraft belly-mounted sensor pod provides a new and exciting capability for UTSI to conduct Airborne Science flight research, including environmental and climate science. The tests were flown from the Tullahoma Regional Airport, where the UTSI Aviation Systems Flight Research Group is based.
The UTSI Aviation Systems Program performed all facets of the design
and development of the new sensor pod, including aerodynamic and
structural design, engineering analyses, fabrication, ground
testing, and flight qualification. The flight test program verified
the structural integrity and safety aspects of flying with the large
pod attached to the belly of the aircraft. These tests included
performance, flying qualities, and systems testing of the pod and
the associated instrumentation and data systems.
The first airborne science missions using the new UTSI sensor pod
will be for the Earth Sciences Office of the NASA Marshall
Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UTSI will fly the NASA
Marshall Airborne Polarimetric Imaging Radiometer or “MAPIR” sensor,
a large, downward looking sensor that can precisely measure surface
temperature over land or water. The first application of this
airborne measurement technology will be to obtain surface
temperature maps of the lakes and rivers that supply cooling water
to nuclear power plants in Tennessee and Alabama. Understanding the
cooling water temperatures is critical to the efficient operation of
these plants and in assessing their environmental impact.
New airborne science sensor pod mounted underneath UTSI Piper Navajo research aircraft.
Close-up view of UTSI airborne science sensor pod, ready for NASA Earth Sciences missions.
UTSI has a growing program focused on airborne, atmospheric, and environmental science that will utilize several of the Aviation Systems research aircraft. In addition to the NASA partnership, UTSI has teamed with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to conduct significant airborne science research over the next several years.
In one NOAA project this year, UTSI will be working with the NOAA
Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division in Oak Ridge,
Tennessee, whose research is focused on air quality, climate, and
the airborne transport and dispersion of pollutants and other
airborne gases. UTSI will be performing airborne measurements of
incident and reflected solar radiation around various NOAA research
tower sites, including those in NOAA's Climate Reference Network in
Tennessee. The objective of these tests is to characterize the
spatial variability of land-use and to provide an intermediate
linkage between the point measurements of reflected solar radiation
provided by the research towers and those measured over much greater
areas by NOAA. In addition, UTSI plans to erect several atmospheric
science ground stations near the Space Institute that will
contribute data to the NOAA science network for many years to come.
In another NOAA project, UTSI is providing flight research support
for a team of scientists from the Florida State University, Georgia
Tech University, the University of Miami and the NOAA Air Resources
Laboratory in Silver Spring, Maryland. In this multi-year project,
UTSI will use their research aircraft to conduct airborne sensing of
atmospheric mercury over the NOAA mercury monitoring site in Grand
Bay, Mississippi and other locations. These airborne measurements
will help scientists better understand the transport and dispersion
of atmospheric mercury in the air and its deposition into the land
and water.
