WEBVTT FILE 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.