wouldn’t matter much so long as the entire ice sheet was eventually mapped.
Changes in ice sheet volume between mappings spaced about 5-10 years apart
would permit scientists to estimate outflow glacier flux and determine the relative
importance of outflow glaciers versus precipitation-melting balance in controlling the volume of an ice sheet.
Ground-penetrating radar is revolutionizing the way that we study underground
water resources. In the past, they could only be studied and mapped by drilling
boreholes. Nowadays, similar mapping can be done for far lower cost and with
much greater accuracy using ground-penetrating radars that can be dragged on
sleds across remote areas that are not served by roads. ULDBs could carry such
radars and provide far broader mapping coverage at even lower cost. Such data
could greatly assist the societal requirement for freshwater.
Balloons (in particular ULDB) could provide a platform for the Venture class
of missions identified in the Earth Science Decadal Survey as a means of reducing
the cost of long-term acquisition of key “continuity” observations in a variety of
fields.
7.3 SOLAR, ASTRONOMY AND COSMOLOGY
7.3.1 BITSE
NASA and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) are teamed
on a mission called the Balloon-borne Investigation of Temperature and Speed
of Electrons (BITSE). It is a coronagraph, a kind of telescope that blocks the
Sun’s bright face in order to reveal its dimmer atmosphere (the corona). The
scientific objective was to investigate how the Sun emits the stream of electrically charged particles called the solar wind. This blows out over the entire solar
system. While scientists generally know where it originates in the outer atmosphere of the Sun, precisely how it does so remains a mystery. But unlocking the
nature of the solar wind is key to predicting how solar eruptions travel. The solar
wind is a bit like a water slide: Its flow determines how a solar storm travels
through space. Some of these storms penetrate Earth’s magnetic field and spark
off disturbances that can interfere with satellites and everyday communications
systems like radio or GPS.
BITSE offered a new way to study the solar wind. While standard coronagraphs
capture the corona’s density, BITSE also measured the temperature and speed of
electrons in the solar wind to help understand the powerful forces that accelerate
them to speeds of a million miles per hour. By improving coronagraphs, BITSE
advanced our understanding of the corona itself, ultimately improving our ability
to forecast weather in space.
152 Scientific Flight Types
Changes in ice sheet volume between mappings spaced about 5-10 years apart
would permit scientists to estimate outflow glacier flux and determine the relative
importance of outflow glaciers versus precipitation-melting balance in controlling the volume of an ice sheet.
Ground-penetrating radar is revolutionizing the way that we study underground
water resources. In the past, they could only be studied and mapped by drilling
boreholes. Nowadays, similar mapping can be done for far lower cost and with
much greater accuracy using ground-penetrating radars that can be dragged on
sleds across remote areas that are not served by roads. ULDBs could carry such
radars and provide far broader mapping coverage at even lower cost. Such data
could greatly assist the societal requirement for freshwater.
Balloons (in particular ULDB) could provide a platform for the Venture class
of missions identified in the Earth Science Decadal Survey as a means of reducing
the cost of long-term acquisition of key “continuity” observations in a variety of
fields.
7.3 SOLAR, ASTRONOMY AND COSMOLOGY
7.3.1 BITSE
NASA and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) are teamed
on a mission called the Balloon-borne Investigation of Temperature and Speed
of Electrons (BITSE). It is a coronagraph, a kind of telescope that blocks the
Sun’s bright face in order to reveal its dimmer atmosphere (the corona). The
scientific objective was to investigate how the Sun emits the stream of electrically charged particles called the solar wind. This blows out over the entire solar
system. While scientists generally know where it originates in the outer atmosphere of the Sun, precisely how it does so remains a mystery. But unlocking the
nature of the solar wind is key to predicting how solar eruptions travel. The solar
wind is a bit like a water slide: Its flow determines how a solar storm travels
through space. Some of these storms penetrate Earth’s magnetic field and spark
off disturbances that can interfere with satellites and everyday communications
systems like radio or GPS.
BITSE offered a new way to study the solar wind. While standard coronagraphs
capture the corona’s density, BITSE also measured the temperature and speed of
electrons in the solar wind to help understand the powerful forces that accelerate
them to speeds of a million miles per hour. By improving coronagraphs, BITSE
advanced our understanding of the corona itself, ultimately improving our ability
to forecast weather in space.
152 Scientific Flight Types