ESTO: Observation

FY02 NRA Projects
The third IIP solicitation (282 k pdf) was a call that covered all research areas in the Earth Science Enterprise Science Research Plan. The NASA Research Announcement was released on July 16, 2002 and 9 awards were announced on December17, 2002. The selected proposals focus on near term investment to support high-priority measurements in the areas of:

One project will evaluate transitioning the present NASA AIRSAR system to a UAV or Proteus aircraft and will seek to add an interferometric SAR capability to the AIRSAR design. Another project will leverage off earlier IIP studies to develop a large deployable 35 GHz radar system in space for monitoring hurricanes and severe storms from geostationary orbit.

Several projects are developing instruments for geostationary measurements of atmospheric properties. One project is developing a dual spectrograph for atmospheric trace gas measurements from Geo. Another is developing a passive microwave radiometer for measuring all-weather temperature and humidity profiles and rain rate from Geo. Finally, one project is leveraging off an earlier IIP and is developing a wide field hyperspectral infrared optical instrument for measuring atmospheric temperature and water vapor from Geo.

Another project is developing an active radar system for direct measurement of sea ice thickness and properties as well as snow cover. One project is developing a laser-based interferometer for gravity field measurements. Another is developing an instrument for Langranian point measurements of altitude profiles of major greehouse gases. Finally, one project is studying using a constellation of satellites in geostationary and low-earth orbit to provide continuous remote sensing of the Earth in the microwave region.

FY01 NRA Projects
The second IIP solicitation (940 K pdf) was a call which covered all research areas in the Earth Science Enterprise Science Research Plan. The NASA Research Announcement was released on March 9, 2001 and 11 awards were announced on August 23, 2001. The selected proposals focus on near term investment to support high-priority measurements in the areas of: Atmospheric Chemistry: Troposhperic Profiles of O3, CO, NOx, Solid Earth: Topography and the Deformation of Land and Ice, Global Carbon Cycle: CO2 Column Abundance and Profile, Global Water and Energy Cycle: Precipitation Rate, Tropospheric Winds, and Sea Surface Salinity / Soil Moisture and Climate Variability and Prediction: GPS Altimetry and Ocean Surface Winds.

A project leveraging a selection from the first round of IIP will seek to develop an inflatable antenna structure and large beam scan capability for future precipitation radars. Microwave radiometry projects include the development of a synthetic aperture 10 GHz radiometer to be combined with 37 and 85 GHz radiometer using a 28 cm mechanically scanned offset reflector for rainfall detection and a project to develop a new receiver architecture for L-band microwave radiometers that performs digital processing prior to detection. Another project will develop ultra-stable radiometers for future sea surface salinity missions and develop a comprehensive mathematical model for optimizing radiometric stability.

Radar technologies will be advanced by a project to develop a synthetic aperture radar operating at 420 MHz (UHF, P-band) and 118 MHz (VHF) for vegetation monitoring and deep soil penetration.

An active approach to measuring carbon dioxide is represented in a project to develop heterodyne lasers that are line-locked on and off resonance of a line-of-site ground return. A Fabry-Perot Interferometer could achieve total column measurements of carbon dioxide by measuring spectral absorption of sunlight reflected by CO2 in two channels.

A project to develop a high spectral resolution Fabry-Perot interferometer designed for geosynchronous orbit has the potential for measuring tropospheric ozone and other trace gases, while a project to develop a suite of in situ spectroscopic instruments could provide collaborative tropospheric chemistry measurements for the Aura mission. Another project will investigate technologies for the measurement of far-infrared thermal radiation, an emerging science area not previously explored, with the potential to better understand the Earth’s radiation balance. Finally, a project to develop a compact, lightweight, precise magnetometer could potentially enable a means to study the structure and dynamics of the Earth’s interior, leading to better utilization of natural resources including water and land use and the mitigation of natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes, flooding, sea level change, and severe storms.

FY98 NRA Projects
The first IIP solicitation was a broad call which covered all five themes in the Mission to Planet Earth Science Research Plan. The NASA Research Announcement was released on April 20, 1998 and 27 awards were announced on October 1, 1998. Most of these IIP projects represent efforts to reduce cost, size, mass, and resource use of current measurement approaches. Several will enable or improve measurements which cannot be made satisfactorily today.

All 27 IIPs have been completed. Final reports for all investigations have been delivered to the ESTO Program Office.