NASA to join Team Offutt

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Danielle Grannan
  • 55th Wing Public Affairs
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. --  More than 20 NASA flight crew, ground crew and technicians will descend on Offutt late this month as the newest, if only temporary, members of Team Offutt.

They will bring with them a NASA ER-2 to participate in the Mid-latitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment, or MC3E, over Oklahoma. This U-2 platform will contain several instruments to help in the MC3E mission, including an advanced microwave precipitation radiometer, a conical scanning microwave imaging radiometer and a high-altitude imaging wind and rain airborne profiler.

"This experiment is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility and the NASA Global Precipitation Measurement mission Ground Validation program," said Chris Miller, NASA mission manager for the ER-2 deployment.

"The objective is to document and monitor in 3-D not only precipitation, but also clouds, winds, and moisture in an attempt to provide a holistic view of convective clouds, their environment, and associated feedbacks," Miller explained.

The ER-2 will simulate a satellite and the data that NASA and their science partners collect will be used to improve algorithms used by weather satellites in the future.

NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission is one of the next generation of satellite-based Earth science missions that will study global precipitation and is scheduled to launch in 2013.

"This will be the first time the NASA ER-2 aircraft will be operated from Offutt," said Maj. Bryan Rogers, 55th Wing plans chief. He added that the base was chosen based on its available resources and location.

"[NASA's] objective is to overfly convective weather systems over a ground site in Oklahoma. It was important for them to be close enough to the target site to reduce transit time, but far enough away so airfield operations are not affected by the weather they are measuring," explained Major Rogers.

Brig. Gen. Donald Bacon, the 55th Wing commander, is excited for Offutt's role in this unique opportunity.

"Supporting NASA will be a wing-wide effort," General Bacon said. "Communications, airfield operations, maintenance, security, [fuels], civil engineering and logistics have all leaned forward to make this possible. The 55th Wing relies on other units and organizations to help us accomplish our world-wide mission and we in turn are happy to assist others to do the same. We also know the NASA team will enjoy their time getting to know the great people of Bellevue, Omaha and the surrounding area."

The NASA ER-2 team is scheduled to arrive at Offutt on April 20 and depart when their mission is complete on June 4.