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Christensen, Lance E.

Publications and source records attributed to Christensen, Lance E..

9 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2019

Testing and Improving a UAV-Based System Designed for Wetland Methane Source Measurements

Wetlands are the single highest emitting methane source category, but the magnitude of wetland fluxes remains difficult to fully characterize due to their large spatial extent and heterogeneity. Fluxes can vary with land surface conditions, vegetation type, and seasonal changes in environmental conditions. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are an emerging platform to better characterize spatial variability in these natural ecosystems. While presenting some advantages over traditional techniques like towers and flux chambers, in that they are mobile vertically and horizontally, their use is still challenging, requiring continued improvement in sensor technology and field measurement approaches. In this work, we employ a small, fast response laser spectrometer on a Matrice 600 hexacopter. The system was previously deployed successfully for 40 flights conducted in a four-day period in 2018 near Fairbanks, Alaska. These flights revealed several potential areas for improvement, including: vertical positioning accuracy, the need for sensor health indicators, and approaches to deal with low wind speeds. An additional set of flights was conducted this year near Antioch in California. Flights were conducted several meters above ground up to 15-25 m in a curtain pattern. These curtains were flown both upwind and downwind of a tower site, allowing us to calculate a mass balance methane flux estimate that can be compared to eddy covariance fluxes from the tower. Testing will better characterize the extent to which altitude drifts in-flight and how GPS values compare with measurements from the onboard LIDAR, as well as the agreement between two-dimensional wind speed and direction on the ground versus measured onboard the UAV. Hardware improvements to the sensor and GPS are being considered to help reduce these sources of uncertainty. Results of this testing and how system performance relates to needs for quantifying wetland fluxes, will be presented.

Golston, Levi↗
NASA NTRS2017

Miniature Tunable Laser Spectrometer for Detection of a Trace Gas

An open-path laser spectrometer (OPLS) for measuring a concentration of a trace gas, the OPLS including an open-path multi-pass analysis region including a first mirror, a second mirror at a distance and orientation from the first mirror, and a support structure for locating the mirrors, a laser coupled to the analysis region and configured to emit light of a wavelength range and to enable a plurality of reflections of the emitted light between the mirrors, a detector coupled to the analysis region and configured to detect a portion of the emitted light impinging on the detector and to generate a corresponding signal, and an electronic system coupled to the laser and the detector, and configured to adjust the wavelength range of the emitted light from the laser based on the generated signal, and to measure the concentration of the trace gas based on the generated signal.

Christensen, Lance E.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Multiplying Mars Lander Opportunities with Marsdrop Microlanders

From canyons to glaciers, from geology to astrobiology, the amount of exciting surface science awaiting us at Mars greatly outstrips available mission opportunities. Based on the thrice -flown Aerospace Corporation Earth Reentry Breakup Recorder (REBR), we present a method for accurate landing of small instrument payloads on Mars, utilizing excess cruise -stage mass on larger missions. One to a few such microlanders might add 1-5% to the cost of a primary mission with inconsequential risk. Using the REBR and JPL Deep Space 2 starting points for a passively stable entry vehicle provides a low mass and low ballistic coefficient, enabling subsonic d employment of a steerable parawing glider, capable of 10+ km of guided flight at a 3:1 glide ratio. Originally developed for the Gemini human space program, the parawing is attractive for a volume -limited microprobe, minimizing descent velocity, and providing sufficient remaining volume for a useful scientific payload. The ability to steer the parawing during descent opens unique opportunities, including terrain- relative navigation for landing within tens of meters of one of several specified targets within a given uncertainty ellipse. In addition to scientific value, some Mars human exploration Strategic Knowledge Gaps could be addressed with deployment of focused instruments at multiple locations.

Staehle, Robert L.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Carbon Dioxide Laser Absorption Spectrometer (CO2LAS) Aircraft Measurements of CO2

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Carbon Dioxide Laser Absorption Spectrometer (CO2LAS) utilizes Integrated Path Differential Absorption (IPDA) at 2.05 microns to obtain CO2 column mixing ratios weighted heavily in the boundary layer. CO2LAS employs a coherent detection receiver and continuous-wave Th:Ho:YLF laser transmitters with output powers around 100 milliwatts. An offset frequency-locking scheme coupled to an absolute frequency reference enables the frequencies of the online and offline lasers to be held to within 200 kHz of desired values. We describe results from 2009 field campaigns when CO2LAS flew on the Twin Otter. We also describe spectroscopic studies aimed at uncovering potential biases in lidar CO2 retrievals at 2.05 microns.

Lidar↗
NASA NTRS2011

JPL Carbon Dioxide Laser Absorption Spectrometer Data Processing Results for the 2010 Flight Campaign

As a precursor to and validation of the core technology necessary for NASA's Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days,and Seasons (ASCENDS) mission, we flew JPL's Carbon Dioxide Laser Absorption Spectrometer (CO2LAS) in a campaign of five flights onboard NASA's DC-8 Airborne Laboratory in July 2010. This is the latest in a series of annual flight campaigns that began in 2006, and our first on the DC-8 aircraft.

Lidar↗
NASA NTRS2008

TES Carbon Monoxide Validation during the Two AVE Campaigns using the Argus and ALIAS Instruments on NASA's WB-57F

The Aura Validation Experiment (AVE) focuses on validating Aura satellite measurements of important atmospheric trace gases using ground-based, aircraft, and balloon-borne instruments. Global satellite observations of CO from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) on the EOS Aura satellite have been ongoing since September 2004. This paper discusses CO validation experiments during the Oct-AVE (2004 Houston, Texas) and CR-AVE (2006 San Jose, Costa Rica) campaigns. The coincidences in location and time between the satellite observations and the available in situ profiles for some cases are not ideal. However, the CO distribution patterns in the two validation flight areas are shown to have very little variability in the aircraft and satellite . observations, thereby making them suitable for validation comparisons. TES CO profiles, which typically have a retrieval uncertainty of 10-20%, are compared with in situ CO measurements from NASA Ames Research Center's Argus instrument taken on board the WB-57F aircraft during Oct-AVE. TES CO retrievals during CR-AVE are compared with in situ measurements from Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Aircraft Laser Infrared Absorption Spectrometer (ALIAS) instrument as well as with the Argus instrument, both taken on board the WB-57F aircraft. During CR-AVE, the average overall difference between ALIAS and Argus CO was 4%, with the ALIAS measurement higher. During individual flights, 2-min time-averaged differences between the two in situ instruments had standard deviation of 14%. The TES averaging kernels and a priori constraint profiles for CO are applied to the in situ data for proper comparisons to account for the reduced vertical resolution and the influence of the a priori in the satellite-derived profile. In the TES sensitive pressure range, approx.700-200 hPa, the in situ profiles and TES profiles agree within 5-10%, less than the variability in CO distributions obtained by both TES and the aircraft instruments in the two regions. TES CO is slightly lower than in situ measurements in the Houston area (midlatitudes) and slightly higher than in situ CO measurements in the Costa Rica region (tropical).

Lopez, Jinena P.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Early Validation Analyses of Atmospheric Profiles from EOS MLS on the Aura Satellite

We present results of early validation studies using retrieved atmospheric profiles from the Earth Observing System Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument on the Aura satellite. 'Global' results are presented for MLS measurements of atmospheric temperature, ozone, water vapor, hydrogen chloride, nitrous oxide, nitric acid, and carbon monoxide, with a focus on the January-March 2005 time period. These global comparisons are made using long-standing global satellites and meteorological datasets, as well as some measurements from more recently launched satellites. Comparisons of MLS data with measurements from the Ft. Sumner, NM, September 2004 balloon flights are also presented. Overall, good agreeement is obtained, often within 5% to 10%, but we point out certain issues to resolve and some larger systematic differences; some artifacts in the first publicly released MLS (version 1.5) dataset are noted.We comment briefly on future plans for validation and software improvements.

Atmospheric retrievals↗