NASA's Global Hawk Completes First Science Flight

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Alan Buis 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Steve Cole 202-358-0918
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

Beth Hagenauer 661-276-7960
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.
Beth.hagenauer@nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2010-120 April 8, 2010

NASA'S GLOBAL HAWK COMPLETES FIRST SCIENCE FLIGHT

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-120&cid=release_2010-120

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA has successfully completed the first science flight of the Global Hawk
unpiloted aircraft system over the Pacific Ocean. The flight was the first of five scheduled for this
month's Global Hawk Pacific, or GloPac, mission to study atmospheric science over the Pacific and
Arctic oceans.

The Global Hawk is a robotic plane that can fly autonomously to altitudes above 18,288 meters
(60,000 feet) -- roughly twice as high as a commercial airliner -- and as far as 20,372 kilometers
(11,000 nautical miles), which is half the circumference of Earth. Operators pre-program a flight path,
then the plane flies itself for as long as 30 hours, staying in contact through satellite and line-of-site
communications links to a ground control station at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in
California's Mojave Desert.

"The Global Hawk is a revolutionary aircraft for science because of its enormous range and
endurance," said Paul Newman, co-mission scientist for GloPac and an atmospheric scientist from
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "No other science platform provides the
range and time to sample rapidly evolving atmospheric phenomena. This mission is our first
opportunity to demonstrate the unique capabilities of this plane, while gathering atmospheric data in a
region that is poorly sampled."

GloPac researchers plan to directly measure and sample greenhouse gases, ozone-depleting
substances, aerosols and constituents of air quality in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere.
GloPac's measurements will cover longer time periods and greater geographic distances than any other
science aircraft.

During Wednesday's flight, the plane flew approximately 8,334 kilometers (4,500 nautical miles)
along a flight path that took it to 150.3 degrees West longitude, and 54.6 degrees North latitude, just
south of Alaska's Kodiak Island. The flight lasted just over 14 hours and flew up to 18,562 meters
(60,900 feet). The mission is a joint project with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, or NOAA.

The plane carries 11 instruments to sample the chemical composition of the troposphere and
stratosphere, including two from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.. The
instruments profile the dynamics and meteorology of both layers and observe the distribution of
clouds and aerosol particles. Project scientists expect to take observations from the equator north to
the Arctic Circle and west of Hawaii.

Although the plane is designed to fly on its own, pilots can change its course or altitude based on
interesting atmospheric phenomena ahead. Researchers have the ability via communications links to
control their instruments from the ground.

"The Global Hawk is a fantastic platform because it gives us expanded access to the atmosphere
beyond what we have with piloted aircraft," said David Fahey, co-mission scientist and a research
physicist at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. "We can go to regions we
couldn't reach or go to previously explored regions and study them for extended periods that are
impossible with conventional planes."

The timing of GloPac flights should allow scientists to observe the breakup of the polar vortex. The
vortex is a large-scale cyclone in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere that dominates winter
weather patterns around the Arctic and is particularly important for understanding ozone depletion in
the Northern Hemisphere.

Scientists also expect to gather high-altitude data between 13,716 and 19,812 meters (45,000 and
65,000 feet), where many greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances are destroyed. They will
measure dust, smoke and pollution that cross the Pacific from Asia and Siberia and affect U.S. air
quality.

Global Hawk will make several flights under NASA's Aura satellite and other "A-train" Earth-
observing satellites, "allowing us to calibrate and confirm what we see from space," Newman added.
GloPac is specifically being conducted in conjunction with NASA's Aura Validation Experiment.

GloPac includes more than 130 researchers and technicians from Goddard, Dryden Flight Research
Center, JPL, and Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Also involved are NOAA's Earth
System Research Laboratory; the University of California, Santa Cruz; Droplet Measurement
Technologies of Boulder, Colo.; and the University of Denver.

NASA Dryden and the Northrop Grumman Corp. of Rancho Bernardo, Calif., signed a Space Act
Agreement to re-fit and maintain three Global Hawks transferred from the U.S. Air Force for use in
high-altitude, long-duration Earth science missions.

For more on GloPac, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/global-hawk.html . JPL is
managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
-end-

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