Research projects |
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The King Air has been deployed to support many research projects directly funded by NSF as part of the LAOF pool. These have included a wide range of research topics, including cloud physics, air chemistry, flux measurements, and development and testing of new airborne instrumentation. Many projects have been based locally in Laramie, but deployments have commonly taken place around the United States and even internationally - including Finland, Martinique, and England. Numerous deployments have occurred in coordination with other LAOF facilities. One example is the SNOWIE project. This project was focused on studying the effects of cloud seeding over the Payette Mountains in Idaho, and involved the King Air making airborne measurements that were coordinated with observations from the Center for Severe Weather Research’s mobile Doppler on Wheels trucks. Another example is the CHEESEHEAD project, which was focused on quantifying boundary layer fluxes over an evolving vegetation environment. For this project, the King Air flew along grid patterns as part of an extensive array of surface-based instruments, UAVs, and radiosonde operations, including the LAOF pool’s Integrated Sounding System and Integrated Surface Flux System. CHEESEHEAD instrument locations and example King Air flight track |
Overview of CSWR radar location and King Air flight strategy during SNOWIE (from French et al. 2018, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci) |
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Educational projects |
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The King Air is also used in education, both for graduate students at the University of Wyoming and as a requestable facility. One example of a project with a specific educational focus is SEAR-MAR, headed by Millersville University and also involving students at Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers, and the University of Maryland - Baltimore County. For this project, the King Air was deployed to Lancaster, PA, where students from each university could take part in mission planning and serve as science crew aboard the research flights. Another example is TECPEC, an education-oriented project that was a joint effort between the University of Wyoming and the University of Utah, allowing students from both universities to be directly involved in mission planning and execution. For this project, the King Air was primarily based in Laramie, with a short deployment to Salt Lake City allowing more direct involvement by the University of Utah students. |
Students learning about the King Air during a facility open house for TECPEC |
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Instrument testing & development |
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User-supplied instruments that have not flown on the King Air previously and may have either no flight experience at all or little but on different aircraft have used the King Air for a designated instrument testing phase prior to full research projects. Instruments in development for airborne applications also have flown on the King Air to test functionality in various atmospheric conditions. The facility itself has developed instruments and tested these on the King Air. Project Monark is an example in which Acubed by Airbus tested a system for airborne atmospheric sensing. |