BOREAS C130 Aircraft Flight Logs and Mission Information

Summary:

During 1994 and 1996, digital and analog imaging instruments mounted on the NASA 
C130 aircraft collected various remotely sensed data from the atmosphere and 
earth’s surface as part of the BOReal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (BOREAS) 
Intensive Field Campaigns (IFC).  Personnel from the NASA Earth Resources 
Aircraft Program within the Medium-altitude Aircraft Branch at NASA Ames 
Research Center (ARC) compiled and published documentation of the BOREAS C130 
missions flown during 1994.  This documentation is contained in the standard 
flight reports (‘logs’) that the ARC personnel developed during their long 
tenure.  In 1994, the suite of instruments onboard the C130 included:

ASAS          - Advanced Solid-state Array Spectroradiometer
MAS           - MODIS (MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer)
                Airborne Simulator (12 channel configuration)
NS001-TMS     - NS001 Thematic Mapper Simulator
TIMS          - Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner
ZEISS-075     - One of two Zeiss photogrametric mapping cameras
ZEISS-085     - One of two Zeiss photogrametric mapping cameras

Due to changes in NASA’s infrastructure and data handling, personnel and staff 
from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility and a different C130 aircraft were 
involved with the data collected during 1996.  The Wallops personnel and 
operations efforts were not able to supply the level of information that had 
previously been supplied by ARC.  Because of the changes, no official C130 
flight logs exist for the 1996 flights.  Some information about the 1996 flights 
was compiled by BOREAS Information System (BORIS) personnel and is available for 
the specific instrument data that was collected, but no overall mission 
information was compiled.  In 1996, the instruments that were flown on the ‘new’ 
C130 aircraft included:

ASAS          - Advanced Solid-state Array Spectroradiometer
SLICER        - Scanning Lidar Imager of Canopies by Echo Recovery

Contact Information:

Jeffrey A. Newcomer
Raytheon ITSS
NASA GSFC
Greenbelt, MD
(301) 286-7858
(301) 286-0239 (fax)
Jeffrey.Newcomer@gsfc.nasa.gov

Jaime Nickeson
Raytheon ITSS
NASA GSFC
Greenbelt, MD 
(301) 286-3373
(301) 286-0239 (fax)
Jaime.Nickeson@gsfc.nasa.gov

Flight Log and Mission Descriptions:

Each of the hardcopy C130 flight logs from 1994 provide flight designations, 
dates, times, instrument manifest, instrument operation summaries, aerial 
photography summaries, and flight line maps.  These ‘blue books’ (so named 
because of their blue covers) are available for all of the 1994 C130 flights.  
The information contained in these reports along with inventory files of data 
created by BOREAS Information System (BORIS) personnel should be helpful in 
assisting users find the data that they need.

The 1994 C130 mission information was compiled from the flight logs and from 
summarizing information provided with the various data sets.  The mission 
information provides an overall synopsis of the missions flown and the 
instruments on-board during the flight.  Users should be aware that BORIS did 
not necessarily receive all the data that are were collected by the various 
instruments.  That is, there are entries in the flight logs showing that various 
instruments collected data on certain flights, but BORIS does not have those 
data.  In those cases, users are encouraged to reference the various data set 
documents for more detailed information, particularly for the 1996 data.


Data File Descriptions:

BORIS staff compiled information from the C130 flights into a relational data 
base and then extracted the information defined in the data definition file 
(c130flog.def). 

The data files contain numerical and character fields of varying length 
separated by commas. The character fields are enclosed with a single apostrophe 
marks. There are no spaces between the fields. Sample data records are shown in 
the companion data definition file (c130flog.def).

Data Access:

Contact for Data Center/Data Access Information:

These BOREAS data are available from the Earth Observing System Data and 
Information System (EOS-DIS) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed 
Active Archive Center (DAAC). The BOREAS contact at ORNL is:

ORNL DAAC User Services
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(865) 241-3952
ornldaac@ornl.gov
ornl@eos.nasa.gov

Procedures for Obtaining Data:

BOREAS data may be obtained through the ORNL DAAC World Wide Web site at 
http://www-eosdis.ornl.gov/ or users may place requests for data by telephone, electronic mail, or fax.

Output Products and Availability:

Requested data can be provided electronically on the ORNL DAAC's anonymous FTP 
site or on various media including, CD-ROMs, 8-MM tapes, or diskettes.

The complete set of BOREAS data CD-ROMs, entitled "Collected Data of the Boreal 
Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study", edited by Newcomer, J., et al., NASA, 1999, are 
also available.


Document Information
     Written: 28-June-1999
     Revised: 30-July-1999
     BORIS Review: 30-June-1999


C130_Flight_Logs.doc
08/21/99