Student airborne research program

The students are all majoring in the STEM Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics disciplines and were selected based on outstanding academic performance, interest in the Earth Sciences, and career goals. All thirty-two posters were displayed in the ballroom of the hotel in Palmdale. After lunch trips to local Palmdale eateries, we heard from Dr.

Watch all the lectures here:. Students were able to board the Shuttle Carrier and walk around the cavernous interior. Inside the Space Shuttle Carrier. Everyone also got the opportunity to sit in the cockpit. After returning inside from the tour, Randy Albertson, Deputy Director of the Airborne Science Program discussed the variety of aircraft and instrumentation available to scientists and described some past and upcoming Airborne Science campaigns.

On Tuesday, students had their first lectures from the four faculty members who will be leading the four SARP research groups. Susan Ustin read more about the research groups here. The last lecturer of the day, Dr. We eagerly tracked the location of the plane on a map as it flew across the country during our morning lectures. After listening to the second round of talks from each of the four research group leaders, students got the opportunity to pick which group they wanted to join.

When we returned from lunch we raced out to the end of the hangar to watch the arrival of the P-3 at the DAOF. After greeting the airplane and its crew, we returned to the lecture hall for lectures from SARP faculty member Dr. Henry Fuelberg who discussed meteorology for Airborne Scientists.

After Dr. Each faculty member and mentor met with their group of eight students for the first time to discuss their plans for instrument integration, calibration and preparation for the flights next week.

On Thursday and Friday the four groups separated to work on preparing for next week. The two atmospheric science groups had a lot of hands-on tasks to accomplish in order to finish the installation and testing of their instruments on the P They had a lot less to do than the atmosphere groups and were therefore able to start seriously thinking about and preparing for their individual research projects.

All of the instruments were successfully installed by 1PM on Friday. Fuelberg then gave us another weather update. He showed us the science goals and locations for the six flights next week but noted that flight planning is just that, planning, and that decisions have to be made in real-time that can alter the plan. Saturday was a free day for the SARPians. Good food and company was had by all.

All in all, an excellent start for the first week of SARP ! Follow the progress of SARP here:. The last weeks of SARP seemed to fly by. The air group headed out on several expeditions to water treatment plants in the Orange and Los Angeles county areas to take air samples. The Super Air Group members pose outside a water treatment facility. For a list of the students and their presentation titles, please click here.

Daniel chats with Randy Albertson lower left , Ming-Ying Wei upper left , and Bruce Tagg upper right during the break between presentations. Everyone was extremely impressed with the high quality of all of the student presentations and the amount of work that was accomplished in such a short period of time.

It has been an amazing summer filled with science, discovery, and friendship. By Sherry Palacios. On July 6th at am, the Oceans group departed Irvine for a two-day research trip. The first day was to be a four-hour research cruise to sample the kelp forests and oil seeps off of Santa Barbara and Isla Vista, CA aboard the dive boat Raptor.

The three-hour drive to Santa Barbara began with eager chattiness and lots of questions from the students. Slowly, the early hour crept up and one-by-one each student succumbed to some awkward derivative of sleep. The last hour of the ride was silent except for my occasional giggle at the sight of ten unconscious students slumped over themselves like comatose contortionists.

The students spent the time to unravel from their pretzel shapes and to tour the harbor. At least two students declared they were moving to Santa Barbara.

We set out of the harbor for our first station and no more than a mile offshore we were met by a pod of Pacific White-sided Dolphins dashing through the bow-wake. The sun was shining, the seas were flat; this was going to be a good day. We collected measurements in support of several research questions developed by the students, with guidance from Professor Kudela and me.

These questions included:. To test these questions the students collected the following samples to use in addition to the imagery we collected from the DC-8 the prior week:.

Kaitlin and Noah filter water samples to measure the light absorption by chromophoric dissolved organic matter CDOM. After the flights in Palmdale, all the students and mentors move into campus houses divided by research group at UCI to conduct their research for the rest of the program.

We are expected to work nine to five, Monday through Friday on our research projects. I am a part of the Atmospheric group that focuses on Photochemical Trace Gases: ozone, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, aerosols, and newly added ammonia data. With all that said, our group is great because it fosters skills that can be used beyond this program in graduate school or future occupations. Overall this experience has been so much more than just research. This has been a rare opportunity to explore scientific interests I would not have otherwise been able to, and am very grateful for it.

Student selection process are based on the following selection criteria: Excellent Academic Performance GPA at least 3. Science, Technology, Engineering or Math STEM major Evidence of interest in Earth system science and hands-on research Leadership qualities and ability to perform in teams students are chosen from the applicant pool each summer to participate in the program. For more information on this opportunity, please contact:.

Research Opportunity Details Duration: Summer. Compensation Type: Paid. Application Deadline: Jan 29, SARP participants will receive a stipend, a travel allowance, and free housing and local transportation during the 8-week program in California. For more information and to apply: baeri.

Program Video: youtu. Program flyer: baeri.