AAF Proposal Process
In 2006, the Twin Otter participated in the Tropical Warm Pool - International Cloud Experiment (TWP-ICE) in Darwin, Australia.
NOTE: The FY 2011 proposal cycle for use of the ARM Aerial Facility is now closed. Selected preproposals will be asked to submit full proposals by May 1. |
The AAF is entertaining proposals for intensive or routine flying above ARM fixed or mobile facilities, as well as proposals for maturation/hardening of instruments. To account for these instrument efforts, AAF flight proposals for FY2011 will need to be smaller in scope than previous campaigns to allow for the instruments proposals as described below. Requested aircraft can include the DOE leased Cessna 206, the DOE supported G-1, or aerial platforms operated outside the DOE. Users wishing to initiate a request should submit a Field Campaign Preproposal Form.
Request for Instrument Proposals
NOTE: This call is associated with the request for AAF field campaign proposals for fiscal year 2011 and uses the same form as field campaigns. The body of the form has been updated to reflect its dual usage and provide some guidance with the associated fields. This form is meant to give a brief overview of the instrument development effort. An initial selection will be made from these submissions. Selected preproposals will be invited to submit a full proposal to be due May 1. Begin a request. |
For FY2011, proposers may request 1 year of funding to accomplish maturation/hardening of existing aircraft instrumentation. This can include calibration and characterization of instruments in flight tests, wind tunnels, or environmental chambers.
"Maturation/hardening" means "moving an airborne instrument to operational status suitable for deployment in a field campaign or routine flights." Typically, the instrument will already exist in some form (breadboard or laboratory prototype) and merely requires an extra push to become operational. That push can include calibration and/or wind tunnel tests and test flights. For those familiar with NASA's Technical Readiness Levels (TRLs), this corresponds to moving the instrument from TRL 5 or 6 to TRL 7. It is conceivable, however, that a very simple instrument could be brought from concept (TRL 2) to TRL 7 with the amount of money available, and such requests will not be excluded.
Examples of aircraft instrumentation themes that are of interest to AAF include:
- Maturation/hardening of instruments that will quantify and reduce uncertainties in measurements of small ice crystals (e.g., shattering artifacts) or that will measure statistically significant populations of ice particles.
- Maturation/hardening of instrumentation to measure spectral aerosol absorption and extinction (preferably at ambient conditions or as a function of RH).
- Maturation/hardening of instrumentation to measure long-path cloud extinction (pathlengths of many meters).
- Maturation/hardening of instrumentation to measure net radiative flux (short and/or longwave).
- Maturation/hardening of instrumentation to measure far-infrared (15-20 μm) radiance at high to moderate spectral resolution (0.5 to 3 cm-1).
- Maturation/hardening of fast time-response instrumentation (for clouds, aerosols, radiation and state parameters).
- Comparisons and evaluation of data processing techniques (which can include the creation of a realistic test data set) with the objective of reducing error bars. Developed code needs to be open source.
Proposers with other innovative ideas for themes not listed here are encouraged to contact the DOE AAF Program Manager Rick Petty. Proposals related to aerosol research need to address aerosol-cloud interactions (i.e., studies of aerosol indirect effect, CCN, IN, etc.) or aerosol-radiation interactions.
AAF is expecting to award five to six proposals with funding levels ranging between $50K and $300K each for FY2011. Partnering with other agencies is encouraged.
To learn more about the proposal review process and how you can request airborne measurements as part of an ACRF field campaign, please refer to the field campaign website and the IOP Request, Approval, and Implementation Process.
