Common menu bar links
Related Information
Institutes & Programs
- NRC Canadian Neutron Beam Centre
- NRC Institute for Aerospace Research
- National Research Council Canada
Key Sectors
Areas of Research
Communities
Careers
News
Events
Enquiries: NRC-IAR
Phone: 613-990-0765
1200 Montreal Road,
M-3
Ottawa,
Ontario,
K1A 0R6
Canada
Airborne Atmospheric Research, Remote Sensing and Aeromagnetics
The Twin Otter participates in major biospheric field experiments such as BOREAS and FIFE.
The IAR Airborne Research group works with a variety of collaborators, including the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC), the Department of National Defence and the North American Icing Research Alliance (including NASA, the FAA and Transport Canada). The work includes airborne atmospheric research, remote sensing and aeromagnetics. These programs are conducted using two specially equipped research aircraft, a Twin Otter and a Convair 580.
The Twin Otter aircraft is a world-class research platform for the measurement of atmospheric fluxes, trace gas and pollution dispersion, and microwave radiation. Current research includes studies of global warming, soil moisture, snow hydrology and ground-truthing of remote sensing measurements.
The Convair 580 aircraft has been involved in important research programs involving atmospheric sensing, including aircraft icing, solar radiation, cloud microphysics, atmospheric chemistry, storm tracking and measurement as well as aerosol transport studies and atmospheric remote sensing. Equipment includes a variety of visible / IR radiometers, a dual-beam mm-wave cloud-profiling radar, a dual beam lidar system and a weather satellite imaging system. This is supplemented by the capability of transmitting images to / from the ground using a satellite communications data-link.
Project station installations on board the Convair 580.
The Convair 580 aircraft also is involved in development and flight testing of Spotlight SAR radar and passive radar detector systems. As well, the Convair 580 can be configured with aeromagnetic sensors in a three component gradiometer system for defence and geophysics applications. Finally, research is continuing into the airborne measurement of the earth's gravity field for geophysical survey.
