September 2019

September 5

FIREX-AQ (Fire Influence on Regional to global Environments eXperiment– Air Quality) The NASA DC-8 has flown 7 science flights so far from Salina, Kansas (plus 14 flights from Boise, Idaho earlier in the campaign). The DC-8 will transit back to Palmdale on 5 September 2019. Ames is providing project management on this mission in addition to operating several payloads onboard including the MODIS ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER), the enhanced MODIS simulator (eMAS), and the Meteorological Measurement System (MMS).

CAMP2Ex (Cloud, Aerosol, Monsoonal Processes – Philippines Experiment) – CAMP2Ex will address the complex, inter-related physical processes between aerosols, cloud microphysics, and radiation in the tropical atmosphere often influenced by human-made pollution. The NASA P-3B has flown 4 science flights through 4 September. Media day will be 9 September 2019. The NASA Ames Earth Science Project Office (ESPO) is managing this mission.

November 2020

November 20

Earth Science Deputy Division Chief, Dr. Florian Schwandner, starts at Ames on 12 November 2019 – Dr. Schwandner, originally from Germany and Greece, comes to us from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he worked since 2013 on a number of NASA and JAXA manned & unmanned airborne, and satellite missions and initiatives related to the carbon cycle, climate sciences, atmospheric sciences including air quality, plumes, and aerosols, and volcanology. He has initiated and led innovative and successful proposal teams, as well as international field teams before, during, and after volcanic crises in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Prior to JPL he was a senior research fellow at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, research faculty at Colorado State University’s Atmospheric Science Department, and held postdoctoral appointments at Arizona State University and ETH Zurich, from where he also graduated with a PhD in geochemistry in 2002. He has a long community service and public speaking record in science and the non-profit sector; most recently he became president-elect for Solid Earth Sciences at the Asia Oceania Geoscience Society (AOGS).

International Group on Earth Observation (GEO) Ministerial Summit – Cindy Schmidt attended the summit in Canberra, Australia on 4-9 November, 2019 as member of the U.S. Delegation. Cindy, Nancy Searby (Program Manager, Applied Science Capacity Building, HQ) and colleagues from Conservation International organized a session “Earth Observations and the World’s Indigenous Peoples”, the first indigenous-focused session in the history of GEO. This session included indigenous panelists from Kenya, Ecuador, Australia, and the U.S. The goal of the session was to bring attention to the importance of indigenous peoples to participate in GEO as well as emphasize how Earth observations could benefit indigenous communities. In addition, Cindy invited James Rattling Leaf, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota to attend the Summit. He became the first Native American to be a member of the U.S. Delegation focused on the importance of Earth observations for U.S. tribal nations.

IMPACTS (Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms) – Integration for the NASA P-3B research aircraft has begun. Vidal Salazar (PM) and Katie Stern (DPM) are traveling on 18 November 2019 to support the integration at Wallops Flight Facility. The deployment is scheduled for 15 January to 29 February 2020. The chief objective of this Earth Venture Suborbital (EVS-3) investigation managed by ESPO is to improve predictive capability for East Coast snowstorms.

December 2019

December 2

S-MODE: (Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment) –Investigation Confirmation Review successfully completed 2 December 2019. JPL DopplerScatt successfully completed four flights on the AFRC B200 from 2-13 December 2019.

IMPACTS (Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms) – Integration for the P-3 and ER-2 are underway. ER-2 is performing proficiency and test flights this week.

EPIC (Earth Science Project management International Collaborative): Attendees from 11 institutions and 7 countries attended this successful event, 4-6 December 2019.

CPEX-AW (Convective Processes EXperiment – Aerosols & Water) Jhony Zavaleta just completed a site visit to Cabo Verde in support of CPEX. The mission aircraft has been changed to the P-3.