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♪

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>>All right...
Good morning everybody.

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Roll call... Got the pilot,
got the co-pilot...

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GHOC operator...
Mission Director...

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All right! Flight mission crew,
FCIFs are complete

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and flight currencies
are all checked.

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Crew schedule
has been published...

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We are NASA872.

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Engine start expecting 0600,

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estimated landing 07
tomorrow morning,

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so the mission duration
is approximately 24.

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All right...
Thanks everybody!

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♪

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>>Hawks are strong,
powerful birds

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capable of flying thousands
of miles each year.

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Some species undertake long
migrational journeys,

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a testimony to their
strength and stamina.

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Our bird will fly over
10,000 nautical miles

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and will reach an altitude
of 65,000 feet.

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>>The preparation for
an ATTREX flight

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starts a couple of days
before the flight

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when we get together and look
at the meteorological forecasts

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and decide where
to send the aircraft.

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>>Those targets are determined
by the circulation

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of the atmosphere which
varies from day to day.

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>>So we design a flight based
on meteorological data

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to go down and sample near
the tropical tropopause,

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so what altitude to sample.

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Also what latitude and
longitude to sample.

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>>We're looking at all the areas
where the scientists want to fly

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and we coordinate those areas

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with the Federal
Aviation Administration.

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>>We work with the scientists
beginning at that time

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to come up with options and a
plan to get them what they need.

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We try to maximize the time
that we spend in the air.

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>>For this experiment we
were focused on regions

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where temperatures are cold,

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because we're interested
in high altitude clouds.

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These clouds are about 10 miles
or 16 km above the surface.

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>>When all the instruments
are ready for flight

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and everything has
been checked out,

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the aircraft has
been checked out,

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we button up all the hatches
and we're ready for flight.

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[Radio chatter]

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>>Once everything is ready
in the control room

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we give the “OK”
for engine start.

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[Radio chatter]

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♪

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>>We fly with a mouse and keyboard

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and it's more like
flying an airline

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that's always on autopilot.

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>>With the Global Hawk
we have the same controls

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only we're just on the ground

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and the aircraft could be
several thousand miles away.

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>>Rather than pointing the nose
in any given direction

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or setting a throttle for
a particular power setting

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we just tell the aircraft
go to this heading,

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go to this altitude,
go to this airspeed...

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the system itself decides on
the best way to get there.

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>>And one of our challenges is to
understand the contingency state

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that the aircraft is in

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and make sure we understand
what the aircraft is doing

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and that's what we truly
want the aircraft to do.

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>>Most of the time
the aircraft is flying

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in what we call a
“cruise climb mode”.

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It's actually full throttle,
in a climb,

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it gets up to a maximum altitude

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and then it has to wait
to burn fuel off and,

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as the aircraft gets lighter,
it goes a little bit higher...

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and a little bit higher...

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up to a maximum ceiling
of about 65,000 feet.

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[Radio chatter]

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>>One of the things we do
during these flights is

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we have a meteorological team
of forecasters down the hall,

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who are watching
the satellite products

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and telling us where
thunderstorms are for example...

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>>There might be colder
temperatures south of Hawaii

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versus just off the coast
of South America...

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or Central America...

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So we have to know
where to direct the plane.

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So we look very carefully at the
meteorological situation first.

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Then when they're in the air
and you're flying along,

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often times these
forecasts are wrong.

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>>When the atmospheric conditions
change during the flight

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when we're out over the ocean,

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a lot of times there's a request

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for us to change
our flight track.

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Maybe the air that
they are interested in

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is in a different area.

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So, one of the things
that we will do

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is coordinate that
flight change.

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>>We will use the information
we're collecting

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as we fly along
to redirect the plane.

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>>If you notice, up in that
forward deck of the airplane,

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there's a big white
48 inch dish.

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That's a KU, a
commercial KU SatCom dish,

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and that is constantly
pointing at the satellite

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that we have subscribed to
for the missions.

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>>We actually get extensive
data transmission

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from what the instruments
are measuring in flight.

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>>We decide, based on
what we see,

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to send the aircraft
somewhere else

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or to have it go down
to different altitudes.

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>>The classic case, as I said,
as you look down

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you see a cloud on the LIDAR and
you say "we're gonna turn around

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descend into that cloud,
and sample it."

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>>So we'll profile down,
through these thin clouds,

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making measurements of
not only water vapor,

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but the temperature,
and the pressure

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and a range of other gases
including ozone,

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chlorofluorocarbons
and so forth.

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So that we can understand
the movement of air

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and the behavior of the air in
that layer as we dive down.

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>>One of the great
things about this is

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being that our ground
station is building-based,

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we have all the scientists
in the back room.

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We always fly with two pilots.

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This gives us the
opportunity for one pilot,

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the mission commander,
to get up, go to the back room

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leave the other guy
to monitor the airplane

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and we can talk with any one
of the particular scientists,

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whoever has the most important
data that they want to get

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at that particular time.

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We can work directly
with that scientist,

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sit right down at the
table with him or her,

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and decide what's the best way
to get them what they want

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and still meet everybody
else's needs.

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>>Obviously, the pilots
fly the plane

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they're the ones who are
talking to ground control,

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but the pilot has to
know where to go

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and that's where the
scientists' role comes in.

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The scientists will
pick the targets

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and direct the plane towards
the appropriate targets.

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Both, before we fly,
and while we are flying.

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>>It's quite a process
because, sometimes,

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it can mean a major shift
in the flight track.

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We'll look at what they propose
and provide some feedback.

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And then we have to talk
to Air Traffic Control

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to make sure that what we're
proposing is okay with them.

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So we will change
the flight track,

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sometimes many times,
during the flight.

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>>And so that's how we
coordinate between

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the flight operations team and
the payload operations team.

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So it's a very close
collaboration during a flight

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between both groups.

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>>Very interesting for
me too, because,

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coming from a platform where
we would just have instruments

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loaded on the plane and
we just go fly a mission,

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we get real time interaction
with the scientists.

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And I've learned a whole lot

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just in the few years
I've been doing this

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on what's going on in the
back end of the airplane.

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Very exciting and
very interesting.

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[Radio chatter]

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>>Well... What next and
what's important to do?

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>>We hope that ATTREX will
improve our understanding

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of this part of the atmosphere,

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but ultimately
ATTREX will raise

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some additional
questions as well.

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>>We have a lot of work to go

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and we hope that doing ATTREX
with multiple missions,

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different times of the year,
in different parts of,

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mostly over the Pacific
but into the Indian Ocean,

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to fully understand the range
of conditions that we'll see

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that models have to consider all
of those ranges of conditions

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in order to understand
the climate system properly.

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>>We need to develop
some more instruments

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and fly them on the Global Hawk
and other high-altitude aircaft

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to make measurements
there as well

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>>Emily Dickinson once wrote:

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“The brain is wider
than the sky”

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Many questions have been
addressed along the way

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and new ones have surfaced