November 18, 2002

Krista Laursen
Director, HIAPER Project Office

There has been much activity here in the HIAPER Project Office (HPO) in recent weeks, so I am happy to have a number of items to report on in this monthly status update on the HIAPER project.

First, the NSF Community Workshop on Instrumentation for HIAPER was held here at NCAR from 4-6 November. Almost 200 representatives from universities, government laboratories, and private industry participated in this event and took part in discussions of the HIAPER platform, its proposed configuration for research, and environmental measurement priorities for this new aircraft. NSF staff members attending the workshop provided an overview of the Announcement of Opportunity (AO) process, schedule, and estimated funding level for proposals to build instrumentation for HIAPER and answered questions about how the AO will be structured, when it will be released (NSF is presently targeting a third quarter of fiscal year 2003 release), and how it is proposed that instruments will be supported following development in accordance with NSF MREFC (Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction) account regulations. All in all, the two-and-a-half days of the workshop allowed for wide-ranging discussions on a number of critical topics pertaining to HIAPER, and my colleagues here at NCAR and at NSF and I found the workshop to be enormously beneficial.

So, what will happen now following the conclusion of the workshop? At present, the HIAPER instrumentation subgroups are working with the members of the HIAPER Advisory Committee (HAC) and HPO staff members to put together a document summarizing the environmental measurements that are felt to be of the highest priority and that HIAPER can be used to provide. This "white paper" summary -- to be based on workshop discussions and input from the instrumentation subgroups and HAC members -- will, within the month of December, be submitted to NSF and will be used to help NSF structure the AO for HIAPER funds and to indicate those areas in which instrumentation proposals should be directed.

In order to summarize and publicize the outcome of the workshop, work will shortly begin on a Bulletin of the American Meteorology Society (BAMS) article on the workshop. This article will summarize the discussions held and will also allow for publication of the talks and white papers presented by the workshop invited speakers. Other forums for publication of workshop summaries (AGU's EOS publication, etc.) are also presently being considered. Also, presentations made during the workshop will shortly be posted to the workshop Web site. So, please check that site in the coming weeks to take a look at some of the materials presented and discussed during the workshop sessions.

I want to thank everyone who participated in the workshop for your time and input from 4-6 November. Your attendance was invaluable to us here at NCAR as we move ahead with this project. I also want to thank the large number of people here at NCAR (in ATD, the Director's Office, Food Services, Imaging and Design Center, and the HPO) and at NSF who put in an enormous amount of time to plan, set up, and execute the workshop and to also handle the somewhat last minute change of venue from Foothills Laboratory to the new Center Green campus. The success of this event was in no small part due to the time and energy all of you committed to this endeavor, and I thank you for all of your efforts.

And now, on to some other recent highlights here in the HPO.

Current Activities and Upcoming Events

After several months of work, the HPO released the final version of the HIAPER Statement of Work (SOW) to Gulfstream on Thursday, 14 November. The version released by UCAR was numbered five and reflected several weeks of detailed discussions between UCAR, NCAR, Gulfstream, and Lockheed Martin staff to finalize the technical requirements for the HIAPER modification effort and to make sure the final document represents a platform that will best meet the needs of the scientific community in the years to come. There are still a couple of modification items to be "fine tuned" in the document; however, the version released on 14 November will shortly become a part of the HIAPER subcontract. It should be noted, however, that even though Version 5 of the SOW is labeled as the final version, it will still be possible to modify/amend this document should it become necessary to do so in future. The HIAPER SOW will shortly be passed on to Lockheed Martin. Following their acceptance of this document, Lockheed staff will begin the detailed engineering design and modification of the GV.

In December, two very important HIAPER meetings will take place here at NCAR. From 11-12 December, a HIAPER Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) will be held between UCAR, NCAR, Gulfstream, and Lockheed Martin staff. This meeting will provide everyone involved with the opportunity to take a first look at some of Lockheed's initial designs for modifications to be made to the GV and to discuss the initial form of these designs.

Concurrent with the TIM, a second external review of the HIAPER project will take place. From 11-13 December, a six member external review panel will participate in the TIM sessions and will also hold executive sessions to assess the performance of the HIAPER Project Office and the execution of the HIAPER project to date. Tim Killeen and I have agreed that it is extremely important to conduct such reviews of the management of this acquisition so as to make sure everything possible is being done to ensure that the HIAPER project is conducted well and that any needed feedback is received from the external community in as timely a manner as possible. Many of you will recall that the first review of the HIAPER project was conducted in May 2001 and was largely a business review. This second review in December is intended to serve as an interim technical and management review of the project execution and conduct to date. We in the Project Office look forward to working with the panel members in December and to receiving their input and feedback.

In Conclusion

To wrap up this month's status report, I want to touch briefly on the topic of community outreach and its importance to the HIAPER project. At this juncture -- having conducted the community instrumentation workshop and released the SOW -- I want to assure each of you that the work of the Project Office to solicit input from the community regarding configuration of the GV has by no means ended. We are now at a critical point in the project, as we work together to summarize the outcomes of the workshop, provide feedback to NSF regarding critical measurements to be made using HIAPER, and make sure that the design and modification of the GV for research is conducted in adherence with the goals and wishes of the largest fraction of the environmental sciences community as is possible. To that end, we (NCAR and NSF) will continue to welcome your input and thoughts regarding the types of measurements that should be made using instrumentation on HIAPER and any concerns/comments you may have about how the project is being carried out. As I've mentioned previously, I am a firm believer in an open door policy, and I and my colleagues here in the HPO and within NCAR continue to welcome your input.

As always, should you have any questions about the HIAPER program, please do not hesitate to contact me here in the HPO.