Reflections: NASA ER-2 Flies High to Validate Satellite Data

In September 2024, the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne Experiment (PACE-PAX) used NASA’s ER-2 aircraft to help validate data from the PACE satellite, launched in February 2024. Based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, the ER-2 flies at altitudes up to 65,000 feet, making it well suited for this high-altitude science mission. A team of pilots, safety engineers, and aircraft technicians from NASA Armstrong worked alongside scientists and engineers from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, as well as researchers from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Netherlands Institute for Space Research, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the Naval Postgraduate School, and other institutions. The data gathered will support scientific understanding of Earth’s oceanic and atmospheric processes.