1 00:00:00,967 --> 00:00:03,470 Full power engines and liftoff 2 00:00:03,470 --> 00:00:06,473 of the Falcon 9 and PACE. 3 00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:10,643 So you’ve successfully launched the newest ocean and atmospheric satellite: 4 00:00:10,643 --> 00:00:11,444 PACE. 5 00:00:11,444 --> 00:00:13,380 It’s powered up, instruments 6 00:00:13,380 --> 00:00:15,482 working, tons of data flowing. 7 00:00:15,482 --> 00:00:17,450 So, all the hard work is done. 8 00:00:18,385 --> 00:00:19,619 There’s still one more step 9 00:00:19,619 --> 00:00:22,555 to make sure all that data is 100% accurate 10 00:00:22,555 --> 00:00:25,125 before the science community gets a hold of it. 11 00:00:25,291 --> 00:00:26,059 And well, 12 00:00:26,059 --> 00:00:27,394 this is where things get 13 00:00:27,394 --> 00:00:28,361 complicated. 14 00:00:32,332 --> 00:00:33,566 Bear with me here. 15 00:00:33,566 --> 00:00:34,667 So go down to the Shearwater. 16 00:00:34,667 --> 00:00:36,903 What time is the ER-2 overflying the Shearwater, 17 00:00:36,903 --> 00:00:38,938 and can the Twin Otter get there at that time? 18 00:00:39,039 --> 00:00:40,673 Yes. Barely. 19 00:00:41,007 --> 00:00:43,643 There's, there's no just doing it in clouds either, so-- 20 00:00:43,643 --> 00:00:44,978 Once again, do you know if there's clouds 21 00:00:44,978 --> 00:00:46,346 are going to be there in 11? 22 00:00:46,346 --> 00:00:47,580 Can you confirm that for us? 23 00:00:47,580 --> 00:00:48,915 It's the first spiral 24 00:00:48,915 --> 00:00:50,950 that has the PACE overflight? 25 00:00:50,950 --> 00:00:53,253 I want to make the Twin Otter overfly them. 26 00:00:53,253 --> 00:00:54,788 I’m trying to climb at like, 27 00:00:54,788 --> 00:00:56,256 200 feet per minute. 28 00:00:56,256 --> 00:00:57,757 It's, like, painful. 29 00:00:57,757 --> 00:00:59,626 In terms of aerosols over land, 30 00:00:59,626 --> 00:01:00,293 we've maxed that out. 31 00:01:00,293 --> 00:01:01,761 We've done everything we need to do. 32 00:01:01,761 --> 00:01:03,163 The only thing we'd be trying to find 33 00:01:03,163 --> 00:01:05,698 clear conditions over the ocean 34 00:01:05,832 --> 00:01:07,700 with some aerosols there. 35 00:01:09,436 --> 00:01:10,870 So PACE-PAX is 36 00:01:10,870 --> 00:01:11,838 making sure 37 00:01:11,838 --> 00:01:13,339 the observations of PACE 38 00:01:13,339 --> 00:01:15,308 are what we think they are. 39 00:01:15,308 --> 00:01:16,409 The idea here 40 00:01:16,409 --> 00:01:18,244 is to go into the environment 41 00:01:18,244 --> 00:01:19,779 to make measurements of the atmosphere, 42 00:01:19,779 --> 00:01:21,614 of the ocean, of the surface 43 00:01:21,614 --> 00:01:23,016 and compare those measurements 44 00:01:23,016 --> 00:01:24,150 to the satellite measurements 45 00:01:24,150 --> 00:01:24,918 of the same things 46 00:01:24,918 --> 00:01:26,219 to make sure that what our satellite 47 00:01:26,219 --> 00:01:29,422 is seeing all over the Earth is correct. 48 00:01:29,556 --> 00:01:32,492 The PACE-PAX campaign has three main components: 49 00:01:32,492 --> 00:01:34,594 two aircraft and a ship. 50 00:01:34,594 --> 00:01:36,096 And all three need to operate 51 00:01:36,096 --> 00:01:39,899 in precise coordination with overpasses of the PACE satellite. 52 00:01:39,899 --> 00:01:40,867 Whether all three 53 00:01:40,867 --> 00:01:42,469 or individual components, 54 00:01:42,469 --> 00:01:44,804 the key is to sync up with PACE. 55 00:01:45,472 --> 00:01:48,374 The whole team understands that timing is everything. 56 00:01:48,741 --> 00:01:50,510 2132. 57 00:01:50,510 --> 00:01:54,747 2132...yeah, we’re good. Yeah. We’re good-- 58 00:01:55,115 --> 00:01:55,849 So one of the things 59 00:01:55,849 --> 00:01:57,350 that's going to be very important for us 60 00:01:57,350 --> 00:01:58,284 is to keep track 61 00:01:58,284 --> 00:01:59,686 of the timing of everything 62 00:01:59,686 --> 00:02:01,387 so that we're making measurements, 63 00:02:01,387 --> 00:02:02,155 say, on the boat 64 00:02:02,155 --> 00:02:03,890 when the aircraft is flying over 65 00:02:03,890 --> 00:02:05,291 or making measurements on the boat 66 00:02:05,291 --> 00:02:08,261 when spacecraft is flying over as well. 67 00:02:08,561 --> 00:02:10,163 They also needed to track the kinds 68 00:02:10,163 --> 00:02:11,131 of different measurements 69 00:02:11,131 --> 00:02:12,298 they were after. 70 00:02:12,298 --> 00:02:12,932 To do that, 71 00:02:12,932 --> 00:02:14,567 the science team came up with a list 72 00:02:14,567 --> 00:02:16,569 of specific observation goals, 73 00:02:16,569 --> 00:02:19,005 some 25 different combinations of land, 74 00:02:19,005 --> 00:02:20,406 air and sea conditions 75 00:02:20,406 --> 00:02:21,474 that the PACE satellite 76 00:02:21,474 --> 00:02:23,776 could measure at any given moment. 77 00:02:23,776 --> 00:02:26,246 And all of these pieces come together in California. 78 00:02:26,646 --> 00:02:27,947 So California is great 79 00:02:27,947 --> 00:02:30,483 because you can get to a wide variety 80 00:02:30,483 --> 00:02:31,784 of different conditions. 81 00:02:31,784 --> 00:02:32,952 California has 82 00:02:32,952 --> 00:02:36,022 large urban areas, has large agricultural areas 83 00:02:36,022 --> 00:02:37,957 like the Central Valley of California. 84 00:02:37,957 --> 00:02:40,627 It has high mountain ranges. Has lots of 85 00:02:40,627 --> 00:02:42,328 very interesting coastal areas, 86 00:02:42,328 --> 00:02:44,097 different types of coastal waters. 87 00:02:44,097 --> 00:02:46,799 There's a lot we can get to from California. 88 00:02:49,235 --> 00:02:51,938 First stop is finding a really unique plane. 89 00:02:52,472 --> 00:02:56,509 NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center is home to a high-altitude 90 00:02:56,509 --> 00:02:58,678 aircraft, known as the ER-2. 91 00:03:01,881 --> 00:03:05,919 The ER-2 flies between 60 and 70,000 feet, 92 00:03:05,919 --> 00:03:08,521 about twice as high as a commercial airliner. 93 00:03:08,521 --> 00:03:10,190 So this is about the closest 94 00:03:10,190 --> 00:03:12,692 one can get to an observation from space 95 00:03:12,692 --> 00:03:14,427 without actually being in space. 96 00:03:14,427 --> 00:03:16,296 This is high enough in the atmosphere 97 00:03:16,296 --> 00:03:18,198 that you can see the curvature of the Earth 98 00:03:18,198 --> 00:03:21,501 and that the sky looks very, very dark, almost black. 99 00:03:21,801 --> 00:03:24,137 Mounted in the wings and nose are special 100 00:03:24,137 --> 00:03:25,738 airborne versions of the instruments 101 00:03:25,738 --> 00:03:27,574 on the PACE satellite, 102 00:03:27,574 --> 00:03:29,209 measuring atmospheric particles 103 00:03:29,209 --> 00:03:30,710 all over the state. 104 00:03:31,044 --> 00:03:32,345 As of yesterday 105 00:03:32,345 --> 00:03:33,580 it looked like smoke was coming 106 00:03:33,580 --> 00:03:35,481 from Oregon, from the north. 107 00:03:35,481 --> 00:03:37,984 But today it looks like it's coming from the south-- 108 00:03:37,984 --> 00:03:39,786 You know, we're interested in aerosols, 109 00:03:39,786 --> 00:03:41,955 and smoke is a type of aerosol. 110 00:03:41,955 --> 00:03:44,457 And so we want it to be operating 111 00:03:44,457 --> 00:03:45,725 in a part of the world 112 00:03:45,725 --> 00:03:48,394 where we could find aerosols to use 113 00:03:48,394 --> 00:03:49,996 when we're checking our ability to 114 00:03:49,996 --> 00:03:51,464 to measure them from space. 115 00:03:51,464 --> 00:03:55,368 So we chose California at this time of the year, September, in part 116 00:03:55,368 --> 00:03:57,370 because it's a bit drier at this time of the year. 117 00:03:57,370 --> 00:04:00,373 There's more likelihood for smoke from forest fires. 118 00:04:00,373 --> 00:04:03,576 It turns out that there were, rather intensive forest fires 119 00:04:03,576 --> 00:04:06,579 in the LA Basin not too long ago. 120 00:04:07,146 --> 00:04:08,982 We were lucky to at least 121 00:04:08,982 --> 00:04:12,585 be there at the right time and place to observe those very well. 122 00:04:12,585 --> 00:04:14,254 So we definitely have a lot of data 123 00:04:14,254 --> 00:04:15,488 that we're gonna be looking at, 124 00:04:15,488 --> 00:04:17,624 and it would be very good test case for us 125 00:04:17,624 --> 00:04:19,459 so that we can monitor these sorts of events 126 00:04:19,459 --> 00:04:21,527 all around the world accurately. 127 00:04:25,598 --> 00:04:27,267 Meanwhile, out on the coast, 128 00:04:27,267 --> 00:04:28,501 PACE scientists on board the 129 00:04:28,501 --> 00:04:30,837 NOAA Research Vessel Shearwater 130 00:04:30,837 --> 00:04:32,272 are making daylong cruises 131 00:04:32,272 --> 00:04:34,407 to measure the atmosphere from the ocean surface, 132 00:04:34,841 --> 00:04:37,877 and collect data on how light interacts with water. 133 00:04:38,211 --> 00:04:40,847 There’s many different instruments on Shearwater. 134 00:04:40,847 --> 00:04:43,750 They’re like different types 135 00:04:43,750 --> 00:04:45,885 of like robotic microsopes that are actually looking 136 00:04:45,885 --> 00:04:48,021 at the diversity of the plankton. 137 00:04:48,121 --> 00:04:50,423 They’re collecting different aspects of radiometry, 138 00:04:50,423 --> 00:04:53,593 which is pretty much to learn more how the light is behaving 139 00:04:53,593 --> 00:04:55,762 underneath the ocean and on the surface of the ocean. 140 00:04:55,762 --> 00:04:57,630 And that's exactly what PACE is looking. 141 00:04:57,897 --> 00:04:59,799 We're pretty much measuring everything 142 00:04:59,799 --> 00:05:02,101 that PACE is measuring from space, 143 00:05:02,101 --> 00:05:05,538 but like, for real, “in situ” as we call it. 144 00:05:11,344 --> 00:05:12,478 Further up the coast, 145 00:05:12,478 --> 00:05:14,547 another plane takes the middle ground, 146 00:05:14,547 --> 00:05:17,650 below the ER-2 and above the Shearwater. 147 00:05:17,650 --> 00:05:21,387 This plane flies between zero kilometers and 3 kilometers 148 00:05:21,387 --> 00:05:23,790 and measures everything below the other plane 149 00:05:23,790 --> 00:05:25,058 and below the satellite. 150 00:05:25,224 --> 00:05:28,027 We’ve uploaded a bunch of instruments on the Twin Otter 151 00:05:28,027 --> 00:05:30,496 so we can measure particles, clouds 152 00:05:30,496 --> 00:05:33,566 and some limited gas phase data in situ. 153 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:36,903 In situ, meaning, it's making measurements of what the air is 154 00:05:36,903 --> 00:05:38,738 like at that very point. 155 00:05:38,738 --> 00:05:40,173 This Twin Otter is equipped 156 00:05:40,173 --> 00:05:42,342 with an air intake, like a snorkel, 157 00:05:42,342 --> 00:05:44,344 bringing in air from the outside 158 00:05:44,344 --> 00:05:47,280 and splitting it into various instruments on board. 159 00:05:47,280 --> 00:05:49,582 So here you see a bunch of different cloud probes 160 00:05:49,582 --> 00:05:51,417 that were designed to 161 00:05:51,417 --> 00:05:53,619 measure scattering from the particles. 162 00:05:53,619 --> 00:05:55,621 There's also a probe here that measures 163 00:05:55,621 --> 00:05:58,291 larger particles that are hard to get into the airplane, 164 00:05:58,291 --> 00:06:00,393 things like dust or sea salt. 165 00:06:00,393 --> 00:06:01,627 To get all those particles 166 00:06:01,627 --> 00:06:02,962 into the instruments, 167 00:06:02,962 --> 00:06:05,965 the flight plans often include strategic “spirals,” 168 00:06:05,965 --> 00:06:09,402 where the Twin Otter flies in circles upward through a column of air 169 00:06:09,402 --> 00:06:12,405 to capture the vertical distribution of aerosols. 170 00:06:13,439 --> 00:06:15,808 The Twin Otter also has a unique vantage point 171 00:06:15,808 --> 00:06:18,845 for observing a seasonal algal bloom of special interest 172 00:06:18,845 --> 00:06:20,480 to a mission like PACE: 173 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:21,948 red tide. 174 00:06:22,148 --> 00:06:23,716 Oh, there's a lot of red off our nose. 175 00:06:23,716 --> 00:06:24,751 Yeah, is there? 176 00:06:24,751 --> 00:06:25,785 Tons. 177 00:06:25,785 --> 00:06:27,120 Oh, yeah. 178 00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:29,489 Off, all off Moss Landing. 179 00:06:30,289 --> 00:06:31,958 And off the right wing. 180 00:06:32,191 --> 00:06:34,260 That's a lot of red. 181 00:06:36,195 --> 00:06:38,498 Coordination of all of these parts of the mission, 182 00:06:38,498 --> 00:06:40,400 you know, getting the different airplanes 183 00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:43,369 or ships in the same location and place 184 00:06:43,369 --> 00:06:44,837 as the satellites are flying over, 185 00:06:44,837 --> 00:06:46,305 it's really complex. 186 00:06:46,305 --> 00:06:47,840 Yep. Satellites. 187 00:06:47,840 --> 00:06:49,442 As in more than one. 188 00:06:49,442 --> 00:06:51,444 The PACE-PAX team is taking advantage 189 00:06:51,444 --> 00:06:52,845 of this massive campaign 190 00:06:52,845 --> 00:06:55,481 to validate the data from another satellite aimed 191 00:06:55,481 --> 00:06:58,584 at determining the role of clouds and aerosols in climate, 192 00:06:58,584 --> 00:06:59,519 EarthCARE. 193 00:06:59,952 --> 00:07:02,555 We’re looking at EarthCARE and PACE over Reno. 194 00:07:02,555 --> 00:07:05,291 There’s repeated observations over Monterey-- 195 00:07:05,291 --> 00:07:08,161 I'm the person kind of planning out the paths 196 00:07:08,161 --> 00:07:11,431 for our sampling strategy for the ER-2, 197 00:07:11,431 --> 00:07:12,565 the Twin Otter, 198 00:07:12,565 --> 00:07:14,534 to have them coordinated as much as we can 199 00:07:14,534 --> 00:07:16,002 with the PACE satellite. 200 00:07:16,636 --> 00:07:18,604 It's all trying to put it all together, 201 00:07:18,604 --> 00:07:20,540 hopefully at the same spot 202 00:07:20,540 --> 00:07:21,641 at the same time, 203 00:07:21,641 --> 00:07:23,109 sampling the same thing. 204 00:07:23,109 --> 00:07:26,879 Start that westernmost line at 1953, 205 00:07:27,246 --> 00:07:28,381 that's including two 206 00:07:28,381 --> 00:07:30,183 spirals in Monterey Bay. 207 00:07:30,183 --> 00:07:32,585 Skipping Monterey first because it’ll be cloudy there. 208 00:07:32,585 --> 00:07:33,419 -Okay. -Right? 209 00:07:33,419 --> 00:07:34,854 Going down to Santa Barbara first-- 210 00:07:34,854 --> 00:07:36,189 like, this is what Brian was saying, right? 211 00:07:36,189 --> 00:07:37,890 It's evolutionary, I feel like. 212 00:07:37,890 --> 00:07:38,958 It's revision. 213 00:07:38,958 --> 00:07:41,427 So we have an idea, and then we're like, oh yeah, well, 214 00:07:41,427 --> 00:07:43,262 if we extend this here, 215 00:07:43,262 --> 00:07:45,465 we might be able to get that connection, 216 00:07:45,465 --> 00:07:47,233 that coordination better. 217 00:07:48,401 --> 00:07:50,470 On the last day for the Research Vessel, 218 00:07:50,470 --> 00:07:53,439 one of those coordination exercises needs the ER-2 219 00:07:53,439 --> 00:07:56,108 and the Twin Otter to fly over the Shearwater. 220 00:07:56,709 --> 00:07:59,045 So they're going for a trifecta overpass: 221 00:07:59,045 --> 00:08:00,947 a PACE, a spiral and an us? 222 00:08:00,947 --> 00:08:01,581 Yeah! 223 00:08:01,581 --> 00:08:02,615 PACE, Twin Otter-- 224 00:08:02,615 --> 00:08:04,283 Twin Otter, ER-2-- 225 00:08:04,283 --> 00:08:05,785 Da-naa-naaah! 226 00:08:05,985 --> 00:08:08,688 We got 18 minutes to the overflight and-- 227 00:08:08,688 --> 00:08:11,390 Ten minutes to the Twin Otter overpass of the Shearwater. 228 00:08:11,390 --> 00:08:13,759 Alright, let’s go up to just about 500 feet-- 229 00:08:13,926 --> 00:08:15,328 So the Twin Otter just turned, 230 00:08:15,328 --> 00:08:16,762 so I'm assuming they started their points, 231 00:08:16,762 --> 00:08:17,730 so they must be there. 232 00:08:17,730 --> 00:08:19,165 -Yeah. -They’re over it. 233 00:08:19,165 --> 00:08:20,032 They’re over the Shearwater? 234 00:08:20,032 --> 00:08:21,601 Cool. Alright. 235 00:08:33,913 --> 00:08:35,915 Seventeen Twin Otter flights, 236 00:08:35,915 --> 00:08:38,117 thirteen ER-2 flights, 237 00:08:38,384 --> 00:08:40,620 fifteen day trips on the Shearwater, 238 00:08:40,620 --> 00:08:45,358 sixteen days of targeted observations during a PACE satellite overpass, 239 00:08:45,358 --> 00:08:47,159 and seven days for EarthCARE. 240 00:08:47,159 --> 00:08:49,662 A coordinated science campaign of this scale 241 00:08:49,662 --> 00:08:53,466 would not be possible without the scientists, weather forecasters, 242 00:08:53,466 --> 00:08:58,504 sailors, pilots, and support crews from across NASA, 243 00:08:58,504 --> 00:09:01,741 NOAA, universities and its international partners. 244 00:09:01,807 --> 00:09:05,011 The PACE-PAX team wraps a successful monthlong 245 00:09:05,011 --> 00:09:06,512 marathon of validation, 246 00:09:06,512 --> 00:09:09,382 leaving California with the data to not only check 247 00:09:09,382 --> 00:09:11,651 the current state of PACE, but also develop 248 00:09:11,651 --> 00:09:13,586 new algorithms and data products 249 00:09:13,586 --> 00:09:18,791 for a next-generation look at the ocean and atmosphere all over the globe.