UAVSAR

The UAVSAR Team

There are three main groups of people with a variety of backgrounds who work on the UAVSAR project, from engineers to pilots to scientists and more.

1. Scientists (NASA, universities, government)

UAVSAR scientists from NASA, universities, or the government compare and analyze the data that are collected after each UAVSAR flight. Sometimes they are also on the ground collecting field data during the flights. By integrating field data with radar images, it is possible to study processes such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and the water cycle. As a remote sensing tool, radar images help scientists answer a broad range of earth science questions related to natural disasters, the carbon cycle, and climate change.

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2. NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center (Pilots, engineers, mechanics)

The crew at AFRC manages the Gulfstream-III jet that flies the UAVSAR radar. Engineers help develop and manage the technology on the airplane, including the Platform Precision Autopilot (PPA) which flies the plane in a very accurate flight path while collecting data. Pilots prepare flight plans for submission to Air Traffic Control and fly the plane to the designated flight lines where the PPA takes over. Mechanics check and maintain the plane's mechanical and electrical systems to make sure the plane is ready to fly safely. The plane undergoes scheduled calendar maintenance 2-3 times a year for 4-6 weeks at a time. During this time, the crew does an in-depth inspection, takes apart the plane components, verifies measurements and seals, and replaces necessary components.

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3. NASA-Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Engineers, mechanics, investigators)

The UAVSAR team at JPL designed and built UAVSAR. The radar electronics and antenna are located in the pod mounted below the fuselage of the plane. The JPL team is constantly working on improving the hardware and implementing new features. They are also in charge of managing all the UAVSAR operations, such as the radar operations during flight, and designing the flight plans that meet the science objectives as well as the budgetary and logistical constraints. The JPL team also processes the SAR data after each flight, producing the final radar images that are used for the science investigations. The JPL team maintains a calibration array in the Rosamond Dry Lake in Southern California that plays an important role in the calibration activities to insure that the measurements are not only consistent, but physically meaningful quantities. The UAVSAR processing team, which regularly pursues enhancements in the processing software for producing the highest quality imagery, uses supercomputers at JPL and NASA's Ames Research Center to process the data. The final, released products are then archived at the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF).

Find out who flies on the plane

The Flight Crew

A minimum of four people must fly on every flight. Sometimes scientists, news reporters, and other special guests get to fly as well. On deployment, everyone on the team (mechanics, crew chief, DTS operator, etc) flies on transits from one airport to another.

2 Pilots

Before the flight, the pilots prepare the final flight plans and send them to air traffic control centers and, if applicable, foreign embassies. They takeoff, land, and fly the Gulfstream-III jet to the designated flight lines.

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1 Radar Operator

The radar operator uses a special computer to turn on the radar and monitor it for any issues. Sometimes there is a problem with the radar hardware mid-flight and the operator is in charge of figuring out what is wrong and trying to fix it.

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1 Precision Auto Pilot (PPA) Operator

The operator is in charge of turning on the Platform Precision Autopilot (PPA) instrument and monitoring it for any possible problems. The PPA accurately flies the plane while the radar is collecting data. It controls the airplane so it can fly the same flight path within a 10 meter (33 ft) diameter tube for hundreds of kilometers at a time. This is important to scientists who want to track the change on the surface of the earth from one flight to the next to study features like glaciers, earthquakes, and volcanoes.

April 24, 2014 in Santiago, Chile

One day on UAVSAR's 2014 Central & South America Deployment

5:30am

Yunling (UAVSAR project manager), Naiara (science coordinator), and Sarah (DTS operator) arrive in Santiago, Chile after a 12 hour red-eye flight from Los Angeles (with a layover in Panama City). Yunling and Naiara have come on deployment to attend various outreach events. Naiara also does last minute flight planning when changes need to be made. Sarah is replacing Ron for the second shift of the deployment as Data Transfer System (DTS) operator. The ladies check-in at the hotel, conveniently located across the street from the airport.

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6am

Typically 2-3 hours before takeoff, the ground crew arrives at the airport to perform a pre-flight inspection. The crew consists of the project manager, crew chief, avionics engineer technician, and quality assurance (QA) inspector.

The inspection includes:

• Inspecting the airplane externally and internally
• Making sure the operating systems on the plane are functioning, for example the navigation, flight controls, engines, oils, emergency lights, etc
• Check the primary, secondary, and backup systems
• When everything checks out 100%, document everything (even changing a light bulb) and submit the paperwork to NASA

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7am

The rest of the flight crew -- pilots, radar operator, PPA operator -- prepare to leave the hotel (no DTS operator today). It takes one hour to get to the airport.

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8am

The flight crew arrives at the airport one hour before takeoff. Before the flight, the pilots prepared the final flight plans and submitted the appropriate documentation to the air traffic control centers and foreign embassies for the flight.

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9am

UAVSAR takes off from Antofagasta, Chile on flight 14048 (48th flight of 2014). Data are collected over Chile and Argentina for scientists who study volcanoes, glaciers, and soil moisture.

Naiara created the initial flight plan (the pilots make the final one) with UAVSAR's Web Flight Planning Tool.

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3pm

UAVSAR lands in Santiago, Chile. Much like the pre-flight inspection, the ground crew stays at the airport longer to perform a post-flight inspection. The rest of the team goes to the hotel.

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4pm

Yunling, Naiara, Sarah, and Paul (volcanologist) participate in a panel discussion at CONICYT in downtown Santiago, Chile. CONICYT is Chile's equivalent to the NSF and funds all research in the country.

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6pm

The ground crew finishes up the post-flight inspection, which takes 2-3 hours after landing. They repair whatever needs to be repaired and submit the paperwork before heading to the hotel.

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8pm

Chileans don't start eating dinner until at least 8-9pm. After the CONICYT event, Gonzalo takes the UAVSAR team to Bocanariz, a restaurant in Santiago.

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9pm

Sarah meets up with Ron at the hotel to download the data. Ron has been the Data Transfer System (DTS) operator for two weeks and Sarah is taking his place for the last two weeks of the deployment. They finish downloading the data around midnight and clear the six hard disks for the next flight.

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Weeks later, back at JPL...

The UAVSAR processing team makes final products with the data.
Here are some samples. View more data processed from this flight here.

Find out who's on the team