Using NASA

1
Using NASAs Real Time Mission Monitor to Manage
and Conduct Airborne Science Missions

• Michael Goodman
• michael.goodman_at_nasa.gov
• NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
• 3 March 2009

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Key Personnel

• The Real Time Mission Monitor is result of years
  of field experiment research and collaboration.
  Primary vision and implementation is provided by
• Richard Blakeslee and Michael Goodman co-PIs
• John Hall, Matt He, and Kathryn Regner software
  developers
• Support provided by NASA Headquarters
• Ramesh Kakar Weather Focus Program Manager
• Hal Maring Radiation Science Program Manager
• Jim Crawford Tropospheric Chemistry Program
  Manager
• Andrew Roberts Airborne Science Program Manager
• George Komar Earth Science Technology Office
  Manager
• Close cooperation with
• Larry Freudinger - NASA Dryden Global Test Range
• NASA Ames - Earth Science Project Office
• Airborne and instrument scientists

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Real Time Mission Monitor
The Real Time Mission Monitor (RTMM) is an
interactive visualization application that
provides situational awareness and field asset
management to enable adaptive and strategic
decision making during airborne field
experiments. To paraphrase the BASF
television commercial We dont make the
science, we make the science easier

• Integrates satellite, airborne, and surface data
  sets
• Tracks airborne vehicle state information
• Displays model and forecast parameter fields

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Planning, Support and Analyses

• RTMM facilitates
• Pre-flight planning
• Interactive waypoint tool
• Satellite overpass predicts
• Forecast parameters
• In-flight monitoring and adaptive flight
  strategies
• Operations center focal point
• Current weather conditions
• Plane-to-plane data transfer
• Enables real time collaborations
• Post-flight analyses, research, and assessments
• Encapsulate and replay missions

• RTMM used by
• Scientists
• Program Managers
• Educators and Students
• Media and Public Affairs

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History of RTMM DeploymentsA Proven Success in
the Field

• 2002 ?Heritage system during the Altus Cumulus
  Electrification Study (ACES) monitored
  uninhabited aerial vehicles near thunderstorms
• 2005 ? Interactive Java-based web prototype
  supported the airborne Lightning Instrument
  Package during the Tropical Cloud Systems and
  Processes (TCSP) experiment (July)
• 2006 ? RTMM was created out of the redesigned
  TCSP prototype. Converted to Google Earth.
  Partnered with NASA Drydens airborne
  communications to transmit data in between the
  airplane and the ground. NASA African Monsoon
  Multidisciplinary Analyses (NAMMA) experiment
  (Aug./Sep.)
• 2007 ? RTMM capabilities expanded to support
  multiple NASA aircraft (ER-2, WB-57, DC-8) during
  Tropical Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling
  (TC4) experiment (July/August)
• ? NOAA-NASA Hurricane Aerosonde demonstration
  (Nov.)
• 2008 ? Supporting Arctic Research of the
  Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and
  Satellites (ARCTAS) experiments in Fairbanks AK
  (April) and Cold Lake, Canada (June/July).
• ? Soil Moisture Active Passive Validation
  Experiment (SMAP VEX) in Wallops Island VA
  (October)

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Multiple Real Time Data SourcesSeamlessly
Integrated
Modeled Forecast Parameters

• Satellite Imagery
• GOES
• Meteosat
• MODIS
• Satellite tracking w/ instrument field of view

• Surface Obs
• Lightning, Radar
• Sondes

Aircraft Instruments

• Flight tracks
• Planned and actual (DC8, ER2, WB57, P3, UAVs,
  Twin Otter)
• In-flight data transfers
• Plane-plane and plane-ground
• Lidar, dropsondes, satellite data

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Multi-TaskingThats what we do when in the field

• X-Chat
• Lidar curtain viewer

• RTMM

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RTMM Monitors the Formation of TS Helene
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Aerosonde UAV Flight Into Hurricane Noel
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Arctic Research of the Composition of the
Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellite

• ARCTAS Summer focused on boreal forest fires
• Searching for the elusive pyrocumulo-nimbus
• Tracked multiple aircraft and performed
  plane-plane transfer of HSRL Lidar data
• Waypoint Planning Tool used to plan the P-3
  missions

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Waypoint Planning Tool

• Enables both individual and group planning of
  flight missions
• Interactive point-and- click
• Generates a flight track in minutes
• Multiple aircraft and predictive satellite tracks
  and instrument field of view
• Stand alone Java

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New Directions RTMM Within A Web-Browser
Lidar curtain views
Simultaneous multiple views
Real time and predictive satellite tracks
Real time animations, looping, and aircraft
tracks
New user interface
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Tropical Cyclone Integrated Data Exchange and
Analysis System (TC-IDEAS)?
Joint NASA Jet Propulsion Lab and Marshall Space
Flight Center Project
Objective To provide fusion of multi-parameter
hurricane observations (satellite, airborne and
in-situ) and model simulations with the purpose
of

• supporting both research and field campaigns
  (incorporating RTMM)
• understanding the physical processes
• improving hurricane forecast by facilitating
  model validation and data assimilation
• enabling the development of new algorithms,
  sensors and missions.

Select by basin, name, or category
with corresponding data availability timelines
ER-2 /AMPR data over GOES IR
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More Information

• To learn more about RTMM and to view movies and
  playbacks of individual flights, please go to the
  RTMM web site at
• http//rtmm.nsstc.nasa.gov
• Contact
• Michael Goodman
• michael.goodman_at_nasa.gov
• Office phone [phone]
• Cell phone [phone]