For successful airborne science campaigns to characterize the vulnerability and resilience of North American Arctic and boreal ecosystems to environmental change.

The Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) Airborne Campaign (AAC) was one of the largest airborne science experiments ever conducted by NASA’s Earth Science Division. This international effort combined assets and personnel from three different NASA Centers (JPL, GSFC, JSC) and two different Flight Centers (AFRC, WFF) as well as numerous universities and Canadian research organizations. Between April and October 2017, the AAC involved ten aircraft in 20 deployments across more than 200 science flights, and surveyed over 4 million km2 in Alaska and northwestern Canada. Many of these flights were coordinated with same-day ground-based measurements to link field-based, process-level studies with geospatial data derived from satellite remote sensing.

A major goal of the 2017 AAC was to collect data that spanned the intermediate space and time scales that are essential for understanding scaling issues across the ABoVE Domain. The 2017 AAC provided unique opportunities to validate satellite and airborne remote sensing data for northern high latitude ecosystems. The 2017 AAC science strategy coupled domain-wide sampling with L-band and P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), imaging spectroscopy, full waveform lidar and atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane with more spatially and temporally focused studies using Ka-band SAR and solar induced chlorophyll fluorescence. Measurements were coordinated with ASCENDS (Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons), the ATOM (Atmospheric TOMography) Earth Ventures airborne investigation, and the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) National Ecological Observing Network Airborne Observing Platform. Targets of interest included field sites operated by ABoVE as well as by the Department of Energy’s Next Generation Ecological Experiment-Arctic team near Nome and Barrow, NSF’s Long-term Ecological Research sites at Toolik Lake (Arctic) and Bonanza Creek (Boreal), the Canadian Cold Regions Hydrology sites in the Arctic tundra near Trail Valley Creek NT, the science stations at Daring Lake NT and Scotty Creek NT, the Government of the Northwest Territories/Environment and Climate Change Canada Slave River/Slave Delta – Peace/Athabasca Delta watershed, the Kluane Lake YT Research Station, and forest and fire disturbance plots from the Alaskan and Canadian Forestry Services.

The team overcame numerous challenges to complete the campaigns on schedule and under budget. For example, on 29 May 2017, the P-band SAR aircraft was struck by lightning returning to Fairbanks International Airport. A post-flight check of the aircraft revealed a hole and warping of the trailing edge of the left hand elevator. After discussing potential solutions with the Houston-based team, the decision was made to purchase/ship a new elevator directly to Fairbanks and to send two additional mechanics to augment the maintenance crew. These two additional mechanics volunteered to leave for Fairbanks immediately following that meeting. Removing and replacing an elevator is straightforward in Houston given the specialized scaffolding available that allows a large crew of people to work on the tail safely, quickly, and efficiently. On the road, no such luxury was available, so the team had to complete all of this maintenance in man lifts with little room to maneuver and operate. Just seven days after being struck by lightning, the elevator was replaced, the aircraft passed a functional check flight (FCF) ensuring that the aircraft was safe for science flights, and immediately executed a 6.0 flight hour science sortie. Also, the UAVSAR/C-20 team diverted from the north to provide 10 days of Hurricane Harvey emergency relief support in Texas, then returned north to complete their ABoVE mission.

For delivering new and critical scientific observations of environmental change for the vast North American Arctic-Boreal region, their superb international teamwork and their determination to overcome the obstacles associated with a large, multi-faceted investigation, the ABoVE Airborne Science Campaign Team is highly deserving of NASA’s Group Achievement Award.