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There's a general sense we need to know more

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about what's happening
above the Arctic Circle,

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and this is a region
that we have very few

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direct measurements.

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[ Engine Sounds ]

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>> Three, two, one, go.

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[ Engine Sounds ]

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Away.

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>> What we're doing
here has two objectives.rinh

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of Aeolus, which is a wind
measuring instrument from space.

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Our second objective is a
polar winds science mission

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where we're trying to validate
models that are designed

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to tell us what's happening
near the surface of the ice,

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of Greenland in particular.

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for today's [inaudible]
and the senior rep

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on deployment for the DC-8.

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[ Engine Sounds ]

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When you're chasing
things like winds,

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they're fairly dynamic
phobjectives will change,otn e

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or the area that they're wanting
to look has moved based off

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of what they're seeing,
and we have to try and make

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that happen real-time.

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That can be a challenge flying
in the airspace we're in,

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because in and around Greenland
it's a non-radar environment,

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which means that we're having

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[ Voices over Radio ]
over the radio.

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>> The DC-8's an excellent
scientific platform

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for a number of reasons.

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It's a four-engine
airplane, it's been re-engined

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with the CFM-56; it has plenty
of power to fly long distances;

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it's got a big wing that's
swept a little bit less

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than some of the airplanes;

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it's also extremely structurally
robust, so it's relatively easy

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to do structural modifications

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without affecting
the air worthiness.

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>> We're going to do
12,000 feet minimum altitude

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for the whole route
unless you cut these short.

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>> Okay.

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>> Because there's a 9200
foot peak right where the --

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ir

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that we've had four wind
lidars flying in formation.

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The DAWN lidar is a
Doppler aerosol wind lidar.

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What it does, it looks at the
small particles in the air,

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be it dust, ice, water droplets,

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what have you, to
measure the wind.

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And it uses infrared eye-safe
laser to measure those winds.

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>> TWiLiTE instrument is
a molecular Doppler lidar.

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Basically, it's a complimentary
instrument to the DAWN,

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which is an aerosol instrument,
and gets very high precision

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when there are aerosols
to scatter off of.

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TWiLiTE has less precision,
but a very predictable signal

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because it scatters directly
off the molecules themselves.

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>> Three, two, one, drop.

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>> -- and a dropsonde is a
small package of instrumentation

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that we drop out
of the aircraft.

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>> Two, one, go.

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>> So, we get wind speed,
wind direction, temperature,

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humidity, pressure, and
surface temperature.

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The lasers-- the
two lasers we have

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are telling us winds,
and aerosols, and clouds,

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but we need to know
the temperature for us

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to correct those observations
and adjust those observations.

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>> So, we have a lot of opinions
on what's happening out there,

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and our job here, at least my
mission, is to take measurements

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where we can go back

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and validate those
models and improve them.

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But this is a great
opportunity for us