Airborne Campaign Schedule
Updated June 17, 2025
This is an experimental campaign map. We are looking to make this useful to the airborne community for planning and piggyback purposes. Click here to view full-screen. Please send any feedback or ideas to Susan Bell.
The campaign schedule table is available in JSON format here.
Non-NASA Platforms in salmon. Currently flying in green. Recently completed campaigns in blue.
Category column: N = NASA Aircraft, C = CAS, J = JPL mission, S = Stratospheric Balloon (Wallops), T = Transport, U = UAS
Campaign | Instrument | Aircraft | PI or POC | Flight Dates | Location | Science/Tech Goals | Sponsor | SOFRS | Category |
GHG MIssions 1,2,3 | AVIRIS-5 | DA B200 (N53W) | A. Thorpe | 2025 - when instrument avail | CONUS | Spectral, radiometric, spatial, and uniformity cal | NASA | 25M003 | C |
EMIT Cal/Val | AVIRIS-5 | DA B200 (N53W) | A. Thorpe | 2025 - when instrument avail | Western U.S., Permian Basin | Locate, quantify CH4 emission targets | EMIT | 25M021 | C |
GEMx | AVIRIS-C and/or AVIRIS-5 | ER-2 | I. McCubbin | Apr 28 - Sep 15, 2025 | Western US | Mineralogy mapping | USGS | 242006 | N |
ORCAA | Biological sampling instruments | Coastal helicopters | S. Howell | Jun 1-26, 2025 | Juneau Icefield, AK | P-STAR: Ocean Worlds Reconnaissance and Characterization of Astrobiologial Analogs | SMD PSD | n/a | C |
MAGEQ | AVIRIS-3 | DA B200 (N53W) | A. Thorpe | Jun - Aug 2025 | Mid-Atlantic states | Mid-Atlantic Gas Emissions Quantification | SMD | 25M003 | C |
MC2 | MC2 | LACoFD Helicopter | K. Oudrhihi | Jun - Jul 2025 | San Gabriel Mts, CA | Measure soil, vegetation moisture with passive L-band | ESD, JPL | n/a | C |
FireSense - Round 2 | AVIRIS-3 | DA B200 (N53W) | M. Eastwood | Jul - Fall 2025 | Western US | Monitoring active wildfires | SMD | 25M006 | C |
Sac - San Joaquin River Delta Exp. | AVIRIS-3 | DA B200 (N53W) | M. Eastwood | Aug - Sep 2025 | CA | Aquatic studies for the Sacramento - San Joaquin River Delta | 25M017 | C | |
Stratospheric Balloon Flt | Mark-IV; WISTLS piggyback | Wallops Strat Balloon | A. Kleinboehl | Aug - Sep 2025 | Ft. Sumer, NM | Stratospheric, UTLS chemical profiles – water vapor, piggyback - planetary Sci TRL instrument advancement | SMD | - | N |
HYMS Balloon Flight | HAMMR-HD | Strat balloon | S. Brown | Aug - Sep 2025 | Arizona | Next Gen Radiometer measurements 30+ days over CONUS | NOAA | n/a | C, Bal |
NASA Glenn Project | JLH probe | Williams Jet | R. Herman | Oct 2025 | Glenn | Water vapor | NASA - AAVP | n/a | C |
SPARTA Zero-G | SPARTA | Zero-G | R. Anderson | Nov 2025 earliest | Florida | In situ planetary surface properties | Flt Ops | C | |
HyTES-1 Eng. Flight | HyTES | Navy Postgrad | B. Eng | Late 2025 | SoCal | Engineering fit, battery | SMD | C | |
NGC-II | YTHP, JLH probe | NGC Hawker | P. Kangaslahti, R. Herman | Early FY26 | Palmdale, CA | Water vapor & temperature profiles | DOE ARPA-E | n/a | J |
PIRS Test | PIRS | B200 801 or DA | A. Soibel | Dec 2025 | CONUS | CO, CO2, humidity & temperature sounding | FireTech | n/a | N |
ASTHROS | ASTHROS | Stratospheric balloon | J. Siles | No earlier than Dec 2025 | APL observatory I&T, Int: Palestine MRR; Dep: Antarctica | Do stars accelerate or decelerate the formation of new stars in their galaxy | NASA | N | |
SMICES-IIP | SMICES radar / radiometer | TBD - likely P3 | P. Kangaslahti | Piggyback FY26 | CONUS | Sensing of ice clouds | IIP | n/a | N |
NISAR S.A. Cal/Val | UAVSAR-L | C-20 | Y. Lou | Jan 2026 | Peru | NISAR validation | NISAR | N | |
India Phase 2B | AVIRIS-3 | ISRO NRSC B200 | M. Eastwood | Feb 2026 | India | Ecosystem and agriculture, coastal waters and coral, dust and black carbon on ice | India | O | |
German Bi-static Experiment | UAVSAR-L | C-20 | Y. Lou | 2026 | Germany | Develop benefits of bi-static SAR | SMD ESD | n/a | N |
SWOT | AirSWOT | B200 (N801NA) | R. Chao PI: M. Simard |
Spring 2026 | Miss Delta | SWOT validation / DSI Radar piggyback | SWOT | N | |
QUAKES-I Test | QUAKES-I | B200 (N801NA) | S. Bell | TBD, Summer 2026 | SoCal | Surface topology | ESD | 25B008 | N |
ASCENT (STV) | QUAKES-I UAVSAR | TBD | A. Donnellan | Summer 2026 | West Coast | surface topography, vegetation | DSI | 27M004 | N, C |
CARBO-Air Test | CARBO-A | B200 801 | G. Sellar | Jun 2026 | CONUS | Quantify methane and CO2 emissions | ESTO | n/a | TBD |
RAID Test Flt | RAID | TBD | D. Arumugam | Nov 2026 | TBD | Rydberg Airborne Inst. Demo.: First Rydberg receiver. SoOP. Soil moisture and STV | IIP | n/a | |
NIMBUS Test Flt | NIMBUS | TBD | R. Rodriquez Monje | Feb 2028 | TBD | Next Gen Intelligent Meteorological Radar with Built-in Understanding of Scenery (Ka, W, G) – ACCP, PBL | IIP | n/a |