High-Flying Interns: NASA’s Student Airborne Research Program (SARP)

Abstract

NASA’s Student Airborne Research Program (SARP) has completed 13 years of airborne student research since its inception in 2009. The 8-week summer internship program provides students, typically rising undergraduate seniors, with an opportunity to get hands-on experience in making Earth system measurements using NASA’s airborne science platforms. Students also make complementary surface-based measurements, analyze airborne and surface data in the context of related data (e.g. coincident satellite measurements or prior-year SARP data), and present results to peers, program leadership, agency management, and the community. The program splits its time between the NASA Armstrong flight facility in Palmdale, California, and the University of California, Irvine. It is implemented with participation of faculty advisors (who provide many of the instruments used) and graduate student mentors, under the overall leadership of the NASA Earth Science Division. Disciplinary foci include atmospheric gases and aerosols, ocean biology, and terrestrial ecology using both in situ and remote sensing instruments. Students are also taken on site visits to nearby laboratories and facilities and attend lectures from visiting faculty and NASA agency personnel. The program engages approximately 30 students per year, with overall approximate gender balance. The program has a high rate of STEM retention, and its alumni are actively engaged in graduate and postgraduate programs in Earth system science and other disciplines. A summary of scientific and programmatic outcomes and a description of how the program has evolved will be presented.