{"id":12264,"date":"2024-10-18T18:03:35","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T22:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/s-mode-asia-aq-and-the-role-of-espo-in-complex-airborne-campaigns\/"},"modified":"2024-10-18T18:03:35","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T22:03:35","slug":"s-mode-asia-aq-and-the-role-of-espo-in-complex-airborne-campaigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/s-mode-asia-aq-and-the-role-of-espo-in-complex-airborne-campaigns\/","title":{"rendered":"S-MODE, ASIA-AQ, and the Role of ESPO in Complex Airborne Campaigns"},"content":{"rendered":"

S-MODE, ASIA-AQ, and the Role of ESPO in Complex Airborne Campaigns<\/h2>\n

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7 min read<\/p>\n

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Jhony Zavaleta, ASIA-AQ Project Manager, welcomes DC-8 Navigator Walter Klein and the rest of the aircraft crew to U-Tapao, Thailand for its initial arrival to the country during the ASIA-AQ campaign. Erin Czech (back, blue shirt) and Jaden Ta (front, black pants) served as part of the Thailand ESPO site management team, while Zavaleta and Sam Kim (far right) worked as the ESPO advance team to prepare each new site for the mission\u2019s arrival. <\/div>\n
NASA Ames\/Rafael Luis M\u00e9ndez Pe\u00f1a<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

ESPO solves problems before you know you have them. If you are missing a canister of liquid nitrogen, got locked out of your rental car, or need clearance for a South Korean military base, you want ESPO in your corner.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

What is ESPO?<\/h2>\n

While the Earth Science Project Office (ESPO)<\/a> does many things, one of the team\u2019s primary responsibilities is providing project management for many of the largest and most complex airborne campaigns across NASA\u2019s Earth Science Division.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Some of these missions are domestic, such as the Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE)<\/a>. S-MODE deployed three separate field campaigns from 2021-2023, using planes, drones, marine robotics, and research vessels to study ocean eddies and sub-surface dynamics. NASA Ames Research Center, located in Northern California, served as S-MODE\u2019s control center and the base for two of the three deployed aircraft.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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Erin Czech (far left) stands with Jacob Soboroff and the Today Show crew, members of the NASA Ames Public Affairs Office, researchers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the NASA Langley G-III air crew during S-MODE\u2019s 2023 deployment. <\/div>\n
Courtesy of Jacob Soboroff<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

ESPO also provides project management for many international missions, such as the Airborne and Satellite Investigation of Asian Air Quality (ASIA-AQ)<\/a>, which deployed in January, 2024 out of South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines. The campaign used satellites, aircraft, and ground-based sensors to study air quality across Asia, as part of a global effort to better understand the factors that contribute to air quality.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Despite the critical nature of ESPO\u2019s work, they\u2019ll be the first to tell you that their goal is to remain behind the scenes. \u201cOur mission statement is essentially to let the scientists concentrate on science,\u201d said Erin Czech<\/a>, Assistant Branch Chief of ESPO. \u201cOur team\u2019s job is to stay in the background. We don\u2019t really advertise all the things we do, the pieces we put together, the crises we solve, because we don\u2019t want folks to have to be in the weeds with us. We\u2019ll take care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Making the invisible, visible: What does this look like in practice?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

Before a deployment:<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n

Project management for major airborne campaigns begins long before a deployment. The team begins by helping establish a mission framework, such as getting a budget in place, settling grants and funding with partner universities and agencies, and performing site visits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not scientists,\u201d Czech said, \u201cit\u2019s the job of the Principal Investigator to mission plan. Our job is to evaluate risk, set up contingency plans, and help make sure all the different groups are talking to each other. We work with world-class scientists, who are going to come up with an awesome plan; we just want to do whatever we need to in order to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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We work with world-class scientists, who are going to come up with an awesome plan; we just want to do whatever we need to in order to support them.<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\"Erin<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Erin Czech<\/p>\n

ESPO Assistant Branch Chief<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

As the deployment date draws closer, the team nails down logistics: deciding how and where to ship equipment, reserving hotel blocks for researchers, acquiring diplomatic clearances, running planning meetings between agencies, and so much more.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This process is particularly complicated for multi-site, international missions like ASIA-AQ, which required multiple visits to each country before the actual deployment. \u201cWe looked at many locations in each country on the first scouting trip, to help figure out deployment sites,\u201d said Jhony Zavaleta<\/a>, Deputy Director for ESPO and Project Manager for ASIA-AQ. \u201cThe second scouting trip was to evaluate modifications promised during the first trip, such as upgrades to infrastructure, and to figure out hotels, transit options, specific facilities for mission operations, that sort of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

According to Zavaleta, another purpose of these advance trips was to put pieces in place with partner organizations\u00a0 \u2013 such as civilian aviation authorities, foreign science ministries, or military operations \u2013 so that when NASA officially requested diplomatic clearance to run the airborne campaigns, the groundwork had already been laid.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Then it\u2019s go time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

During the deployment:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As the deployment gets underway, ESPO keeps the flurry of activity running as smoothly as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring a deployment, you\u2019re working all day every day,\u201d said Czech, who is also the Project Manager for S-MODE. \u201cBut really that\u2019s the whole mission team. When you\u2019re on a NASA project, the whole team is incredibly dedicated and working like crazy, because everybody\u2019s on the same page to make the most out of this investment, and take advantage of any kind of science opportunity that presents itself day to day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

For Zavaleta, day-to-day operations meant escorting personnel onto military bases, tracking down liquid nitrogen, coordinating media days with local news outlets, setting up satellite communications, arranging transportation between sites, and preparing the next location. \u201cI was on the ESPO advance team, which would set up one location, overlap with the ESPO site management team for about a week, then head to the next,\u201d Zavaleta recalled. \u201cOur teams would leapfrog; we were always managing site logistics, but also always preparing and setting up for the next spot.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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(From left) Stevie Phothisane, Vidal Salazar, and Daisy Gonzalez, the ESPO site management team for the Philippines during ASIA-AQ, sit at Clark International Airport coordinating daily operations support while the aircraft was in flight.<\/div>\n
NASA Ames\/Rafael\u00a0Luis\u00a0M\u00e9ndez\u00a0Pe\u00f1a<\/em><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Beyond the day-to-day operations, ESPO also steps in when major issues arise. According to Czech, they can usually expect one or two big wrenches to come up for any major mission.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

For S-MODE, the first wrench came in the form of a global pandemic. \u201cThe original deployment was set for April, 2020,\u201d Czech said. \u201cEverything was shutting down, and we had just set everything up: ship, aircraft, everything. In fact, we set everything up two more times before we ultimately got to do our first deployment, in October of 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The second major wrench happened when four months before the actual launch, the research vessel the mission was planned around backed out. From there, Czech said it was a mad scramble to find a suitable replacement vessel that was already on the West Coast, and to build out the on-board infrastructure to meet the mission requirements.<\/p>\n

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An image of a small ship at a dock before a science voyage. The ship is mostly white, with a black smokestack with an orange stripe. It has a black crane mounted on its back and a wooden plaque at the front of the bridge with its name, \"Oceanus.\" A person wearing a bright orange jacket and yellow hardhat stands on one of the decks and looks across at the camera. It is a cloudy day, and heavy, dark clouds cover the sky.<\/a><\/figure>
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The R\/V (Research Vessel) Oceanus sits docked in Newport, Oregon during S-MODE ship mobilization. The Oceanus was one of three research vessels that deployed throughout the mission.<\/div>\n
NASA Ames\/Sommer Nicholas<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe key is just to always be on the lookout for issues, keep agile, and don\u2019t get too frustrated if things don\u2019t go your way,\u201d Czech said. \u201cIt is what it is. Some major issue comes up on every big mission: you\u2019ve just got to figure out how to deal with it, then move on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

After the deployment:<\/h3>\n

After a field deployment is finished, there are still years of work to do \u2013 for the scientists and for ESPO.<\/p>\n

The final S-MODE field deployment concluded in Spring of 2023. While the science team has been processing data<\/a> and analyzing results, ESPO\u2019s role has been to organize annual science team meetings, track publications tied to the mission, and help compile a final report to be presented in Washington DC when the mission officially wraps in May of 2025.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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Researchers Kayli Matsuyoshi, Luke Colosi and Luc Lenain in the Air-Sea Interaction Laboratory at SIO discussing the latest S-MODE findings. <\/div>\n
Courtesy of Nick Pizzo<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For ASIA-AQ, whose deployment wrapped up in March of 2024, ESPO\u2019s first task was getting all equipment and personnel back to their respective home bases. Next up, Zavaleta and his team are coordinating a science team meeting in Malaysia in January of 2025, and supporting the scientists as they put together a preliminary research report for later that spring.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Knowledge and Expertise<\/h2>\n

While logistical skills and communication brokering are important pieces of ESPO\u2019s role, knowledge may be the group\u2019s most important asset. \u201cIn many ways, our value to NASA lies in the fact that we\u2019ve been doing this a long time,\u201d Czech said. \u201cOur first mission was in 1987, and we\u2019ve run over 60 campaigns since then; we have a lot of institutional knowledge that gets passed down, and a lot of experience between our team members. That expertise is a large part of our value to the agency.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

To access the data from S-MODE, visit the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC)<\/a><\/p>\n

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About the Author<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Milan<\/div>\n
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Milan Loiacono<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
Science Communication Specialist<\/div>\n
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Milan Loiacono is a science communication specialist for the Earth Science Division at NASA Ames Research Center.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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