C-20 Flights Support Sensing TechnologyFlight

A C-20 based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, departs to use its Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar to support the Marine Oil Spill Thickness mission. Thousands of gallons of oil seep through cracks in the ocean floor and rise to the surface just off the coast of Santa Barbara. It’s one of the largest naturally occurring oil seeps and serves as a laboratory for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to test automated oil spill detection, oil extent mapping, and oil thickness characterization.