ESTO: Observation

IIP Investments
The IIP program uses the NASA Research Announcement (NRA) as its investment vehicle. Links to the full solicitations and awards are listed in the table and a brief summary of each solicitation follows below.

IIP ROSES 2007 NRA
21 Proposals were awarded funding for a total dollar value over a three-year period of approximately $64 million. The objectives of the IIP are to identify, develop and, where appropriate demonstrate new measurement technologies which: reduce the risk, cost, and development time of Earth observing instruments, and enable new Earth observation measurements. The IIP is designed to reduce the risk of new innovative instrument systems so that they can be successfully used in future science solicitations in a fast track (3 year) acquisition environment. The program is envisioned to be flexible enough to accept technology developments at various stages of maturity, and through appropriate risk reduction activities (such as instrument design, laboratory breadboards, engineering models, laboratory and/or field demonstrations) advance the technology readiness of the instrument or instrument subsystem for infusion into future NASA science missions.

IIP 2004 NRA
23 Proposals were selected from a field of 82 submitted proposals. The total funding for these investigations, over a period of three years, is approximately $60 million; investigators and collaborators are located in 13 states. The instruments selected include active and passive optical systems for measuring cloud properties and trace gases with improved resolution; radar and laser-based approaches for mapping and measuring ice sheets; active and passive approaches for measuring tropospheric wind velocities; an agile digital detector for radio-frequency interference mitigation in radiometers; a gravity gradiometer; an interferometric synthetic aperature radar for surface deformation measurements; and a GPS based instrument for precise orbit determination, ionospheric studies, and solid earth studies.

IIP 2002 NRA
9 Proposals were awarded funding to support high-priority measurements in the areas of:

One project will evaluate transitioning the present NASA AIRSAR system to a UAV or Proteus aircraft and will seek to add an interferometric SAR capability to the AIRSAR design. Another project will leverage off earlier IIP studies to develop a large deployable 35 GHz radar system in space for monitoring hurricanes and severe storms from geostationary orbit.

Several projects are developing instruments for geostationary measurements of atmospheric properties. One project is developing a dual spectrograph for atmospheric trace gas measurements from Geo. Another is developing a passive microwave radiometer for measuring all-weather temperature and humidity profiles and rain rate from Geo. Finally, one project is leveraging off an earlier IIP and is developing a wide field hyperspectral infrared optical instrument for measuring atmospheric temperature and water vapor from Geo.

Another project is developing an active radar system for direct measurement of sea ice thickness and properties as well as snow cover. One project is developing a laser-based interferometer for gravity field measurements. Another is developing an instrument for Langranian point measurements of altitude profiles of major greehouse gases. Finally, one project is studying using a constellation of satellites in geostationary and low-earth orbit to provide continuous remote sensing of the Earth in the microwave region.

IIP 2001 NRA
11 Proposals were selected that focus on near term investment to support high-priority measurements in the areas of: Atmospheric Chemistry: Troposhperic Profiles of O3, CO, NOx, Solid Earth: Topography and the Deformation of Land and Ice, Global Carbon Cycle: CO2 Column Abundance and Profile, Global Water and Energy Cycle: Precipitation Rate, Tropospheric Winds, and Sea Surface Salinity / Soil Moisture and Climate Variability and Prediction: GPS Altimetry and Ocean Surface Winds.

A project leveraging a selection from the first round of IIP will seek to develop an inflatable antenna structure and large beam scan capability for future precipitation radars. Microwave radiometry projects include the development of a synthetic aperture 10 GHz radiometer to be combined with 37 and 85 GHz radiometer using a 28 cm mechanically scanned offset reflector for rainfall detection and a project to develop a new receiver architecture for L-band microwave radiometers that performs digital processing prior to detection. Another project will develop ultra-stable radiometers for future sea surface salinity missions and develop a comprehensive mathematical model for optimizing radiometric stability.

Radar technologies will be advanced by a project to develop a synthetic aperture radar operating at 420 MHz (UHF, P-band) and 118 MHz (VHF) for vegetation monitoring and deep soil penetration.

An active approach to measuring carbon dioxide is represented in a project to develop heterodyne lasers that are line-locked on and off resonance of a line-of-site ground return. A Fabry-Perot Interferometer could achieve total column measurements of carbon dioxide by measuring spectral absorption of sunlight reflected by CO2 in two channels.

A project to develop a high spectral resolution Fabry-Perot interferometer designed for geosynchronous orbit has the potential for measuring tropospheric ozone and other trace gases, while a project to develop a suite of in situ spectroscopic instruments could provide collaborative tropospheric chemistry measurements for the Aura mission. Another project will investigate technologies for the measurement of far-infrared thermal radiation, an emerging science area not previously explored, with the potential to better understand the Earth’s radiation balance. Finally, a project to develop a compact, lightweight, precise magnetometer could potentially enable a means to study the structure and dynamics of the Earth’s interior, leading to better utilization of natural resources including water and land use and the mitigation of natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes, flooding, sea level change, and severe storms.

IIP 1998 NRA
The first IIP solicitation was a broad call which covered all five themes in the Mission to Planet Earth Science Research Plan. 27 Proposals were awarded funding and most of these IIP projects represent efforts to reduce cost, size, mass, and resource use of current measurement approaches. Several will enable or improve measurements which cannot be made satisfactorily today.