 | NASA ICE (@NASA_ICE) |
The #IceBridge mascot in action over the Bellingshausen Sea. Help us choose a name by sending us your suggestions. pic.twitter.com/FGsHWaeS | |
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Tweet from NASA ICE (@NASA_ICE)
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Sci5: Evaporation Lab Part 2
Evaporation Lab Data & Analysis
by Sci5
Based on our data, we see a diagonal line where the data clusters. In general, as the temperature of the water increases, so does the relative humidity in the chamber. We think this means that warmer water creates higher evaporation rates.
To test our data, we need to test water that is about 50°C. If we are correct, the relative humidity should be about 75%.
Based on our data, we see a diagonal line where the data clusters. In general, as the temperature of the water increases, so does the relative humidity in the chamber. We think this means that warmer water creates higher evaporation rates.
To test our data, we need to test water that is about 50°C. If we are correct, the relative humidity should be about 75%.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Sci5: Evaporation Lab
Evaporation Lab
by Sci5
We are trying to figure out if evaporation is different over different temperatures of water. We are also trying to figure out if this is part of what causes the wind in hurricanes.
We are testing this by putting a beaker of water at different temperatures into closed chamber. We put probes into the chamber to test the changes in air temperature, water temperature and relative humidity inside the chamber over a ten minute period. We are using Vernier LabQuests and LoggerPro to record the data.
We are also running a control trial with each water temperature, but the beaker and probes are not in the closed container. They are sitting in a table in the classroom. We noticed that the humidity does not change on the control. We think that the humidity doesn't change because the is a bigger air volume in the room than the chamber.
Our predictions were that there would be more evaporation over hot water. We noticed that Nadine was stronger over warmer water. The hotter water is, the more steam it lets off.
by Sci5
We are trying to figure out if evaporation is different over different temperatures of water. We are also trying to figure out if this is part of what causes the wind in hurricanes.
 |
| Lab Setup |
We are testing this by putting a beaker of water at different temperatures into closed chamber. We put probes into the chamber to test the changes in air temperature, water temperature and relative humidity inside the chamber over a ten minute period. We are using Vernier LabQuests and LoggerPro to record the data.
We are also running a control trial with each water temperature, but the beaker and probes are not in the closed container. They are sitting in a table in the classroom. We noticed that the humidity does not change on the control. We think that the humidity doesn't change because the is a bigger air volume in the room than the chamber.
Our predictions were that there would be more evaporation over hot water. We noticed that Nadine was stronger over warmer water. The hotter water is, the more steam it lets off.
Posted with BlogsyThursday, October 4, 2012
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Sci5: Chat With Pilot Phil Hall
Chat with Global Hawk Pilot Phil Hall
by Sci5
Our class got a chance to have an online chat with NASA/NOAA Global Hawk Pilot Phil Hall. We got a chance to ask him a lot of questions about the plane and his work and he shared a lot of interesting stuff with us. Phil joined us from NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Emily joined us from NASA Ames Research Center, both in California.
eschaller:We have a classroom in New York online. The students are logging in right now.
pghall1:Very good!
eschaller: How many students are in your classroom right now?
MWMathSci:We have 11 students.
MWMathSci:Hi Phil. Thanks for sharing your time with us today.
pghall1:I'm happy to. I like talking about our project.
MWMathSci Phil how long were you on mission duty for each flight.
pghall1: Hi! Our duty time depends... when we are flying at Wallops, we launch and recover the aircraft, so we fly 3-4 hours each day. When we are flying at Dryden, we are mostly over the ocean, so we fly up to 12 hrs, but usually it is 10 hours... It is very odd, flying an aircraft off the coast of Africa... from California!
MWMathSci:Do you use satellite relays to communicate with the plane?
pghall1:Yes- we use a number of different commercial satellites....most of them were designed for voice or TV, but we use them for controlling the aircraft and getting data back from the aircraft, such as images and science data.
MWMathSci: What has your goal been in this research?
pghall1:The goal of this research is to study the formation and intensification of tropical storms and hurricanes. It's very important work, and the Global Hawk is very, very well suited for this because it carries large payloads and flies for very long durations- up to 30 hours!
MWMathSci: What interested you in being a pilot?
pghall1:I've been flying the GH for about 3 years. I love flying, and learning about things that fly. I'm also an aerospace engineer.
MWMathSci:What is the most surprising data you have collected?
pghall1:The most surprising data? That was when we fly to the north pole, it was the warmest air that we ever flew in! Who would have guessed that? not me.
MWMathSci:Is piloting the plane physically hard?
pghall1:Flying the GH is very different than other aircraft. Most of the input is with a mouse and keyboard, so no, it's not physically difficult, like say a fighter plane is.
eschaller: Phil, does flying the Global Hawk almost feel like playing a video game?
pghall1:Actually, it does not feel that way at all to me. Primarily because it's a 30,000lb aircraft flying around other aircraft, so it is much more intense than a game.
MWMathSci:When is the test flight for AV1? What's the flight plan for tomorrow?
pghall1: AV-1 should fly this Friday. We are doing testing right now. Tomorrow, we have a full test of AV-1 to test that all systems are working.... if that works out, we'll fly on Friday, just a short local flight to check everything out on the aircraft.
pghall1:Here is a very cool video of an entire GH flight, compressed down to less than 4 minutes!
MWMathSci:What was the approximate altitude of the flight in the video?
pghall1:The video was as high as 65,000 ft.
pghall1:On this video, you can see the GH with the proteus is a research project.
eschaller: Tropical Storm Nadine is still out in the Atlantic. There is a new tropical depression that may also form into a tropical storm http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
MWMathSci:Emily, is Nadine approaching record duration?
eschaller:The record is 28 days for a hurricane. Since Nadine has been a tropical storm for so long, I'm not sure if it qualifies. Nadine has been active for 21 days. I just checked and that means it has earned a spot among the top-five longest-lived tropical cyclones in Atlantic history going back to 1851.
pghall1:Emily, I wonder how they tracked stroms in 1851 w/o satellites?
eschaller:Phil, I've searched around and as best as I can tell, before satellites, they relied on ship and tropical island weather observations.
pghall1:That's pretty interesting. It must be much easier now that we can actually measure winds from space.
eschaller:Definitely!
MWMathSci:yes, shipboard obs were key... makes one wonder how much extrapolation has been used to estimate plots and intensities. Such a different world after GEOS!
pghall1:It's interesting that the GOES downlink for east coast is also at Wallops.
MWMathSci:Wallops is definitely an underrated center. A lot done there that most people don't know about. Happy to see them using social media to reach out more
MWMathSci:What got you interested in this research?
pghall1:I was interested in how unmanned aircraft could be used for environmental science for NASA and NOAA. The GH is now being used for studying our planet and our understanding of earth's processes. Important work!
MWMathSci:Are you "on loan" from USAF to NASA or is that your post?
pghall1:I am a NOAA (national oceanic and atmospheric administration) commissioned officer. www.noaacorps.noaa.gov/
MWMathSci: What other research platforms do you fly?
pghall1:I fly some of the NOAA aircraft and I am helping NOAA use UAS For their data collection. I fly the NASA King Air and the NOAA Twin Otter as well. http://youtu.be/bDwuF1n2jUA
MWMathSci:What kind of data is collected via those two?
pghall1:The Global Hawk is very different from anything else... can you figure out what would be different from a Twin Otter?
MWMathSci:maybe it cuts through clouds better?
pghall1:Actually, the GH has long skinny wings and does not handle turbulence that well. It also has a laminar flow airfoil (you can look that up). The King Air and Twin Otter are much better at flying in clouds and in bad weather. The NASA King Air does a variety of work, from studying wildfires to studying the ocean. http://goo.gl/j0GKn The NOAA Twin Otter, has a large capacity and flies very low. We study a lot of marine mammal with the Twin Otter. I've flown of *hundreds* of whales, all over the country. The NASA Twin Otter is used for icing research: http://goo.gl/R7uAf
MWMathSci:can King Air or Twin Otter be used for dropsonde deployment?
pghall1:They could, but typically, a higher altitude aircraft is used for dropsondes. NOAA uses a specially modified business jet, the Gulfstream for dropsondes. We are dropping up to 80 from the GH.
MWMathSci:Phil, how do the hand offs between DFRC and WFC work
pghall1:the handoff... It is actually pretty simple, we give the other center a link to the aircraft, so they can get all the aircraft status, we then go through a checklist to talk about what is going on, and then they give us control and we take the rest of the command and control links.
MWMathSci:Phil and Emily thanks so much for all this wonderful information, we have a lot to go back over. We're going to sign off now and head to lunch.
eschaller:Have a great day!
pghall1:Enjoy lunch.
eschaller:Thanks so much for logging in today Phil!
pghall1:I hope that you can follow our flight, we will be flying from Wallops to Dryden on Tuesday!
MWMathSci:Yay! We will check in on Tuesday. In sci class 1115-1200 edt on tues
MWMathSci:Phil this was especially fun because we met at the hanger at DFRC in Aug. I had photos of us in the hanger and mission control to share with them for visual reference
pghall1:Excellent, I enjoyed the questions!
by Sci5
Our class got a chance to have an online chat with NASA/NOAA Global Hawk Pilot Phil Hall. We got a chance to ask him a lot of questions about the plane and his work and he shared a lot of interesting stuff with us. Phil joined us from NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Emily joined us from NASA Ames Research Center, both in California.
eschaller:We have a classroom in New York online. The students are logging in right now.
pghall1:Very good!
eschaller: How many students are in your classroom right now?
MWMathSci:We have 11 students.
MWMathSci:Hi Phil. Thanks for sharing your time with us today.
pghall1:I'm happy to. I like talking about our project.
MWMathSci Phil how long were you on mission duty for each flight.
pghall1: Hi! Our duty time depends... when we are flying at Wallops, we launch and recover the aircraft, so we fly 3-4 hours each day. When we are flying at Dryden, we are mostly over the ocean, so we fly up to 12 hrs, but usually it is 10 hours... It is very odd, flying an aircraft off the coast of Africa... from California!
 |
| NASA Dryden Mission Control |
MWMathSci:Do you use satellite relays to communicate with the plane?
pghall1:Yes- we use a number of different commercial satellites....most of them were designed for voice or TV, but we use them for controlling the aircraft and getting data back from the aircraft, such as images and science data.
MWMathSci: What has your goal been in this research?
pghall1:The goal of this research is to study the formation and intensification of tropical storms and hurricanes. It's very important work, and the Global Hawk is very, very well suited for this because it carries large payloads and flies for very long durations- up to 30 hours!
MWMathSci: What interested you in being a pilot?
pghall1:I've been flying the GH for about 3 years. I love flying, and learning about things that fly. I'm also an aerospace engineer.
MWMathSci:What is the most surprising data you have collected?
pghall1:The most surprising data? That was when we fly to the north pole, it was the warmest air that we ever flew in! Who would have guessed that? not me.
MWMathSci:Is piloting the plane physically hard?
pghall1:Flying the GH is very different than other aircraft. Most of the input is with a mouse and keyboard, so no, it's not physically difficult, like say a fighter plane is.
eschaller: Phil, does flying the Global Hawk almost feel like playing a video game?
pghall1:Actually, it does not feel that way at all to me. Primarily because it's a 30,000lb aircraft flying around other aircraft, so it is much more intense than a game.
MWMathSci:When is the test flight for AV1? What's the flight plan for tomorrow?
pghall1: AV-1 should fly this Friday. We are doing testing right now. Tomorrow, we have a full test of AV-1 to test that all systems are working.... if that works out, we'll fly on Friday, just a short local flight to check everything out on the aircraft.
pghall1:Here is a very cool video of an entire GH flight, compressed down to less than 4 minutes!
MWMathSci:What was the approximate altitude of the flight in the video?
pghall1:The video was as high as 65,000 ft.
pghall1:On this video, you can see the GH with the proteus is a research project.
eschaller: Tropical Storm Nadine is still out in the Atlantic. There is a new tropical depression that may also form into a tropical storm http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
MWMathSci:Emily, is Nadine approaching record duration?
eschaller:The record is 28 days for a hurricane. Since Nadine has been a tropical storm for so long, I'm not sure if it qualifies. Nadine has been active for 21 days. I just checked and that means it has earned a spot among the top-five longest-lived tropical cyclones in Atlantic history going back to 1851.
pghall1:Emily, I wonder how they tracked stroms in 1851 w/o satellites?
eschaller:Phil, I've searched around and as best as I can tell, before satellites, they relied on ship and tropical island weather observations.
pghall1:That's pretty interesting. It must be much easier now that we can actually measure winds from space.
eschaller:Definitely!
MWMathSci:yes, shipboard obs were key... makes one wonder how much extrapolation has been used to estimate plots and intensities. Such a different world after GEOS!
pghall1:It's interesting that the GOES downlink for east coast is also at Wallops.
MWMathSci:Wallops is definitely an underrated center. A lot done there that most people don't know about. Happy to see them using social media to reach out more
MWMathSci:What got you interested in this research?
pghall1:I was interested in how unmanned aircraft could be used for environmental science for NASA and NOAA. The GH is now being used for studying our planet and our understanding of earth's processes. Important work!
MWMathSci:Are you "on loan" from USAF to NASA or is that your post?
pghall1:I am a NOAA (national oceanic and atmospheric administration) commissioned officer. www.noaacorps.noaa.gov/
MWMathSci: What other research platforms do you fly?
pghall1:I fly some of the NOAA aircraft and I am helping NOAA use UAS For their data collection. I fly the NASA King Air and the NOAA Twin Otter as well. http://youtu.be/bDwuF1n2jUA
MWMathSci:What kind of data is collected via those two?
pghall1:The Global Hawk is very different from anything else... can you figure out what would be different from a Twin Otter?
MWMathSci:maybe it cuts through clouds better?
pghall1:Actually, the GH has long skinny wings and does not handle turbulence that well. It also has a laminar flow airfoil (you can look that up). The King Air and Twin Otter are much better at flying in clouds and in bad weather. The NASA King Air does a variety of work, from studying wildfires to studying the ocean. http://goo.gl/j0GKn The NOAA Twin Otter, has a large capacity and flies very low. We study a lot of marine mammal with the Twin Otter. I've flown of *hundreds* of whales, all over the country. The NASA Twin Otter is used for icing research: http://goo.gl/R7uAf
MWMathSci:can King Air or Twin Otter be used for dropsonde deployment?
pghall1:They could, but typically, a higher altitude aircraft is used for dropsondes. NOAA uses a specially modified business jet, the Gulfstream for dropsondes. We are dropping up to 80 from the GH.
MWMathSci:Phil, how do the hand offs between DFRC and WFC work
pghall1:the handoff... It is actually pretty simple, we give the other center a link to the aircraft, so they can get all the aircraft status, we then go through a checklist to talk about what is going on, and then they give us control and we take the rest of the command and control links.
MWMathSci:Phil and Emily thanks so much for all this wonderful information, we have a lot to go back over. We're going to sign off now and head to lunch.
eschaller:Have a great day!
pghall1:Enjoy lunch.
eschaller:Thanks so much for logging in today Phil!
pghall1:I hope that you can follow our flight, we will be flying from Wallops to Dryden on Tuesday!
MWMathSci:Yay! We will check in on Tuesday. In sci class 1115-1200 edt on tues
MWMathSci:Phil this was especially fun because we met at the hanger at DFRC in Aug. I had photos of us in the hanger and mission control to share with them for visual reference
pghall1:Excellent, I enjoyed the questions!
Sci4: First Experimental Trial
Testing Light & Dark Seed Germination
by Sci4AO
We decided to first see if seeds need light to germinate. So we put half of seeds in a dark space and half of the seeds in a space with intense light that was always on. After 2 days, all the seeds in the light and the dark germinated. So that means you don't need light for RCBr seeds to germinate.
The seedlings didn't all look the same though. They grew differently in the dark than in the light.
In the dark, the seedlings had yellow closed cotyledons. The stems are really long and white. The testas were all off.
In the light, the seedlings had dark green open cotyledons that looked like clovers. The stems were shorter and light green. Most seedlings still had the testas attached between the stem and root.
We think that the seedlings in the dark didn't grow very well because they couldn't make any food (sugar). Plants need light to make their food. This is called PHOTOSYNTHESIS. No light, no green, no photosynthesis, no food = unhappy plants.
Next we want to try without water and at different temperatures.
We are pretty sure that they won't germinate without water. But we're not sure what will happen at warmer or colder temperatures.
by Sci4AO
We decided to first see if seeds need light to germinate. So we put half of seeds in a dark space and half of the seeds in a space with intense light that was always on. After 2 days, all the seeds in the light and the dark germinated. So that means you don't need light for RCBr seeds to germinate.
The seedlings didn't all look the same though. They grew differently in the dark than in the light.
In the dark, the seedlings had yellow closed cotyledons. The stems are really long and white. The testas were all off.
In the light, the seedlings had dark green open cotyledons that looked like clovers. The stems were shorter and light green. Most seedlings still had the testas attached between the stem and root.
 |
| RCBr Seedlings at Day 10 Grown in Dark on right, Grown in Constant Light on left. |
Next we want to try without water and at different temperatures.
We are pretty sure that they won't germinate without water. But we're not sure what will happen at warmer or colder temperatures.
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