JPL airborne campaign schedule

JPL's Airborne Science Program is driven by remote sensing and in-situ instruments teams that conduct suborbital studies on a variety of airborne platforms.

Airborne platforms utilized include both tethered and untethered inflatable devices like balloons and blimps, piloted aircraft ranging from small general aviation aircraft and helicopters to large turbine transport planes (777), and uninhabited aircraft systems (UAS), both large military surveillance-class and small fixed-wing, quad and octocopter drones. These systems and their installed instruments provide measurements from just above Earth’s surface with small UAS, to 60,000 feet in altitude aboard the ER-2 aircraft, and even to altitudes greater than 20 miles via high-altitude balloons.

The wide variety of airborne campaigns in which these instruments operate showcase JPL’s unique expertise in developing cutting edge technology that expand the boundaries of Earth Science. The campaigns provide opportunities to better understand how Earth works as a system for the benefit of society. Campaigns range from defined research experiments in areas such as atmospheric chemistry and physics, hydrology and the cryosphere, ecosystems and biodiversity, physical oceanography, natural disasters, and land surface change, to remote sensing instrument validation for satellite missions such as Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) and Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP). Additional campaigns also test instrumentation and techniques for future Earth and planetary missions, such as Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) and Europa.

JPL airborne instruments catalog