NASA Global Hawk
Overview
A Space Act Agreement between NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and Northrop Grumman established a partnership to retrofit and maintain three Global Hawk aircraft transferred from the U.S. Air Force. The three NASA Global Hawk aircraft, among the first seven built in the original Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration program sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, were transferred to NASA Dryden by the U.S. Air Force in 2007. NASA announced plans to use them for missions supporting its Science Mission Directorate and the Earth science community that require high-altitude, long-endurance, long-distance airborne capability. Media gallery.
Global Pacific (GloPac) Missions
As part of the Northrop Grumman/NASA partnership, the company contributed to the GloPac missions by developing the GloPac mission plans; confirming aircraft performance through extensive analysis; providing pilots and training for NASA/NOAA pilots; sharing maintenance and operations support; and developing and building a new ground control station and software for aircraft operations.
The GloPac mission flights revolutionized the collection of data in the stratosphere. Fitted with 11 science instruments, Global Hawk acquired and transmitted data that has never before been accessible through either manned flights or satellites. Flights reached up to 65,000 feet where information was collected from the air as well as the water and polar ice below. Data from the science instruments were downloaded in real-time to NASA Dryden Flight Research Center where scientists were able to analyze the data, and if necessary, ask the Global Hawk pilot to adjust the flight path to optimize data collection.
Flights during the GloPac project ranged from north of the Arctic Circle, over polar ice, down to Hawaii near the equator. NASA Global Hawk completed 82.5 flight hours, with one particular flight lasting 28.6 hours, eight hours of which was spent north of Alaska over the polar ice. Additionally, this was the first time a Global Hawk unmanned air vehicle has flown as far as 85 degrees north latitude.
The flights were designed to address several science objectives, including validation and scientific collaboration with NASA earth observation satellite (EOS) missions, principally the Aura satellite, also built by Northrop Grumman. The GloPac payloads collected atmospheric data in the same location at the same time as Aura and other EOS missions to compare and combine results.
Hurricane Missions
The Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes, or GRIP, experiment was a five-week NASA Earth science campaign to enable scientists to better understand how hurricanes form and grow stronger.
NASA Global Hawk examined hurricanes and their formation process. This experiment explored the possibility of improving hurricane forecasts. The Global Hawk aircraft proved to be the premier platform for use in high-altitude, long-duration Earth science missions.
During the six-week mission NASA Global Hawk flew from NASA Dryden Flight Research Center to support science research flights. On Sept. 2 NASA Global Hawk flew towards the East Coast to support a science research flight over Hurricane Earl. The flight marked the first time the NASA Global Hawk flew over a fully formed hurricane.
The NASA Global Hawk flew a 24-hour mission from its Southern California base and gathered nine hours of data over Hurricane Earl. The Global Hawk monitored the hurricane from an altitude of 60,000 feet. It crossed the eye of the hurricane seven times and made two other passes near the eye.
The NASA Global Hawk also monitored tropical depression Frank and Hurricane Karl. The aircraft departed towards Hurricane Karl along the southern Gulf of Mexico on Sept. 16, flew for 25 hours and completed six legs over the hurricane. On Aug. 28 the NASA Global Hawk flew along the California coast towards southern Mexico and captured critical data over tropical depression Frank, at an altitude of up to 58,400 feet. The mission lasted a total of 15.2 hours.
Additionally, the NASA Global Hawk completed a science flight over the AL-92 tropical disturbance southeast of Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean on Sept. 12. It completed a 24.3 hour flight, including seven hours collecting data over the storm.
For additional information regarding the GRIP experiment, please visit the NASA website.
Winter Storms and Pacific Atmospheric Rivers (WISPAR)
NASA Global Hawk began a series of flights over the Pacific Ocean on Feb. 11, 2011 as part of a campaign to study atmospheric rivers. Known as WISPAR, the research was done by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to improve winter storm forecasts.
The purpose of the WISPAR project was to collect data on how atmospheric rivers form and behave. Atmospheric rivers are narrow regions in the Earth’s atmosphere that transport large amounts of water vapor. These atmospheric rivers could transport enough water vapor on any given day to lead to flooding in California, or contribute to a beneficial increase in the snowpack.
NOAA and the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) partnered to install payloads on a NASA Global Hawk for the WISPAR campaign. Aboard the Global Hawk for the WISPAR missions were atmospheric reconnaissance devices called dropsondes. Developed by NOAA, they measure temperature, pressure, moisture, wind and other atmospheric phenomena as they drop. Up to 89 dropsondes are released from the aft end of the Global Hawk. The measurements document conditions along the complete extent of an atmospheric river and its evolution as it approaches landfall.
Another sensor aboard the Global Hawk was the High Altitude Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuit (MMIC) Sounding Radiometer (HAMSR), an atmospheric sounder based on MMIC technology designed and built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. HAMSR is a passive microwave radiometer, which measures the thermal radiation emitted from the atmosphere and the surface below the aircraft. It measures microwaves in two air temperature-sounding bands and one water-vapor sounding band to provide calibrated temperatures. HAMSR products include vertical temperature profiles and water vapor and liquid water profiles from the ground to the 65,000 foot altitude of the aircraft. HAMSR provides observations similar to those obtained with microwave sounders currently operating on NASA, NOAA and European Space Agency spacecraft.
For additional information regarding the WISPAR campaign, please visit the NASA website.
Specifications
Wingspan: 116.2 ft (35.4 m)
Length: 44.4 ft (13.5 m)
Height: 14.6 ft (4.2 m)
Gross Take-off Weight: 26,700 lbs (12,110.9 kg)
Internal Payload Capacity: 1,500 lbs (680.4 kg)
Pod Payload Capacity: 700 lbs per side (317.5 kg)
Ferry Range: 11,000 nm (20,372 km)
Maximum Altitude: = 65,000 ft (19.8 km)
Loiter Velocity: 343 knots True Air Speed (TAS)
Maximum Endurance: 31 Hours
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