Scientific Committee for Oceanographic Aircraft Research

Committee Members:

SCOAR Information:

Workshops

2nd Annual Alaska UAS Interest Group Conference:
Go to http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/AlaskaUAS_conf/

The Second Annual Alaska UAS Interest Group Conference, was held on September 15-16, 2009. This year's meeting is a far cry from the initial meeting held in the spring of 2008. The idea behind forming the group was to gather together people who were either operating UAS in Alaska (not many) and those who would like to operate them in the future. Last year's meeting had about two dozen attendees and five presentations in one half day. At the end of the conference I agreed to organize a similar meeting in 2009 if there was enough continued "interest." The "interest" this Conference has received is reflective of the exponential growth and excitement about UAS in general and operations of UAS in Alaska and the Arctic in particular. This year we are expecting almost sixty people (limited by the size of our facility) and over twenty presentations in a focused two day conference. We will post a link to proceedings as soon as one is made available.

ICCAGRA The Interagency Coordinating Committee for Airborne Geosciences Research and Applications

We are starting to pull our next ICCAGRA meeting together in Tampa Bay, Fl on November 9 and 10, 2009. The meeting will be held at the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center located at MacDill Air Force Base. We have run short on time during the past few meetings and unfortunately a few agencies have not had adequate time to give their updates. In addition business issues have also had to tabled. For this reason the meeting will be held over a 1.5 day period. During the afternoon of the second day, Jim McFadden will be giving us a tour of the AOC and the hurricane hunters.

This will be a full meeting. In addition to the agency updates and tour, we will have a lot to discuss on the international front following the very successful meeting in Stresa with EUFAR. We have members attending the EUFAR meeting next week, members attending the ISDE6 conference in Beijing next week, and we have members contributing their time and talents for the ISPRS Standardization for Airborne Platform Interface working group (http://www.isprs.org/commission1/). On the domestic side, the Unmanned Aerial Systems Working Group is off to a strong start. And we will hear about the progress IWAGDTS has been making.

Ocean Sciences 2010 Session: Ocean Technology & Infrastructure Needs for the Next 20 Years

This 2010 Oceans Sciences session will be held in Portland, OR February 22-26. The seminar will cover ocean infrastructure ­ laboratories, satellites, vessels, sensors, and instruments ­ as the backbone for oceanographic research. It is required to collect observations at sea, gather remote sensing data, and create predictive models, but it also becomes aged and obsolete, limiting the research enterprise. What are the types of infrastructure and technology investments that are needed to continue cutting-edge oceanography for the next 20 years? How are emerging societal needs directing our future infrastructure requirements? How does technology created for other fields drive advances in oceanography? Can today’s technology and infrastructure be optimized for future research needs, or will current assets (such as ships and satellites) require fundamental changes? This session will explore the technology trends and barriers that impact future ocean research infrastructure. A wide range of viewpoints is encouraged. Abstracts are due by October 15.

Ocean Sciences: SCOAR Town Meeting.

Ocean investigators’ tools include research ships, submersibles, buoys, drifters, undersea gliders, and cabled observing systems. While satellites provide meso- to ocean-scale views of ocean dynamics across a range of time scales, the rapid response and cost-effective capabilities of aircraft offer an attractive and significant contribution. Aircraft and maturing Unmanned Aerial Systems field a wide variety of sensors and capabilities specifically tailored to the spatial needs of ocean, Arctic, near coastal, near shore, and estuarine investigations.

Join us to learn more about aircraft facilities for researchers, hosted by the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System’s Scientific Committee for Oceanographic Aircraft Research (SCOAR.) Check back here -- or at the OCEAN SCIENCES PORTLAND 2010 MEETING website for an upcoming announcement with the date, time and room location for this event. SCOAR members are encouraged to attend to share their thoughts on the use of aircraft facilities and CIRPAS with their marine and atmospheric science colleagues.

Recent Publications

UNOLS Establishes SCOAR to Promote Research Aircraft Facilities for U.S. Ocean Sciences
Published in Oceanography Vol 17, No. 4

UNOLS Oceanographic Aircraft Facility Information:

Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS)

CIRPAS Aircraft:

Pelican OPV

Altus ST UAV

UV-18a 'Twin Otter'

Other Federal Research Aircraft Facilities and Information:

Federal Research Aircraft Brochure

	Department of Energy (DOE): http://www.pnl.gov/atmospheric/programs/raf.stm http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/aero/net/iap/index.html http://armuav.ca.sandia.gov/armuav.html
	Federal Aviation Administration (FAA): http://www.tc.faa.gov/ http://www.tc.faa.gov/its/cmd/visitors/data/ACT-300/rdfp.pdf
	National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): http://www.earth.nasa.gov/science/suborbital/ http://cloud1.arc.nasa.gov/ http://www.wff.nasa.gov/~apb/ http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/airsci/
	National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): http://www.aoc.noaa.gov/ http://www.omao.noaa.gov/ http://www.aoc.noaa.gov/aircraft.htm Information for requests: http://www.omao.noaa.gov/fleettimereq.html
	National Science Foundation (NSF): http://www.eol.ucar.edu/ http://www.hiaper.ucar.edu/ http://www.eol.ucar.edu/facilities.html Information for requests: http://www.eol.ucar.edu/requests.html
	Office of Naval Research (ONR), Department of Defense: http://www.cirpas.org
	U.S. Naval Research Lab (NRL): http://www.nrl.navy.mil/ http://planes.nrl.navy.mil/

Updated 10/02/2008