The "idea" for the IDEAS program came from the annual UCAR Members' Meeting in the fall of 2000. A review of facility needs was conducted at this meeting, and one major discussion issue was that university faculty and students want more opportunities to participate in instrument development efforts. In particular, they wish to have the opportunity to access facilities that are not easily available to them, such as research aircraft, but are essential for testing new instruments they have or are developing. Previous UCAR Members' Meetings identified another need: to train students in observational science. There are few opportunities for students to fly on research aircraft and to actually participate in airborne measurements of clouds or other constituents of the atmosphere.

Instrument Development and Education in Airborne Science (IDEAS) phase 4 is a three year program to provide opportunities for flight testing of improved instrumentation for airborne research. The goal is to improve the capability of instrumentation for future National Science Foundation (NSF) airborne deployments and to provide opportunities for students to learn about observational science. Phase 4 contains 3 sub-phases for instrumentation testing on three research aircraft: the NSF/NCAR C-130 (2011), the NSF/NCAR GV aircraft (2013), and the University of Wyoming King Air (2012).

Principal Investigator:

Jeff Stith,
NCAR/RAF
stith AT ucar.edu

Project Manager:

Allen Schanot,
NCAR/RAF
schanot AT ucar.edu

EOL Data Management:

Janine Aquino,
NCAR/EOL
janine AT ucar.edu