David Garrett                                                        
  September 15, 1992
  Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
  (Phone: 202/453-8400)
  
  Donald James
  Ames Research Center, Mountain view, Calif.
  (Phone: 415/604-3935)
  
  
  RELEASE:  92-149
  
  
  NASA RESEARCH PLANE TO ASSESS HURRICANE INIKI DAMAGE
  
       Mountain View, Calif. -- A NASA Ames Research ER-2 
  aircraft will take high altitude aerial images of the 
  Hawaiian Islands to help officials determine the full extent 
  of the damage caused by Hurricane Iniki.
  
       "The State of Hawaii has an urgent need for high 
  quality, high altitude aerial photography...to assist us in 
  our planning and recovery operations in the aftermath of 
  Hurricane Iniki," the Director of Hawaii's Office of State 
  Planning, Harold Masumoto, stated in a letter Monday to 
  Ames' High Altitude Missions Branch Chief John Arvesen.
  
       The ER-2 will take off from Ames at about 6:30 a.m. PDT 
  Wednesday, Sept. 16, flying to Hawaii to take the 
  photographs, then land at Barber's Point Naval Air Station 
  on Oahu.  The aircraft will remain in the islands for about 
  a week, Arvesen said. 
  
       The ER-2 will take black and white, color, color 
  infrared and digital images (using a thematic mapper 
  simulator camera).  The black and white film will be 
  processed and analyzed in Hawaii.  The other images 
  immediately will be flown back to the mainland  for 
  processing at Ames.
  
  
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       The ER-2 is the modern successor to the 1950s vintage 
  U-2.  It is considered an exceptionally versatile research 
  aircraft and well-suited for multiple mission work.  Flying 
  at 68,000 feet, the ER-2 operates above 95 percent of the 
  Earth's atmosphere.  At altitudes in that range, data 
  gathered by the aircraft's sensors are similar to that 
  gathered by space-based satellites. 
  
  Hurricane Andrew
  
       NASA provided similar support to the State of Florida 
  after Hurricane Andrew.  
  
       A Learjet from NASA's Stennis Space Center in 
  Mississippi, equipped with a variety of sensors and cameras,  
  gathered data in the South Miami-Homestead area on urban, 
  suburban, farm and natural resource damage.  This data 
  enabled disaster officials to get a far-more-accurate 
  picture of damage than they had obtained by on-the-ground 
  inspections.
  
       Achieving this degree of accuracy enabled the 
  Governor's office to make a realistic cost estimate of the 
  damage to present to the state legislature and to 
  congressional committees in Washington.
  
       The Stennis center also obtained pre-Andrew aerial 
  photographs of the area from a commercial aerial photography 
  firm.  They will be used in conjunction with data from the 
  Learjet mission to plan reconstruction and rehabilitation of 
  natural resources. 
  
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