Eye in the Sky

An interview with Joe Piotrowski

- By Emily Cambias

For a guy whose job requires him to spend his time in the clouds, Joe Piotrowski is amazingly down to earth. Piotrowski works at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC). The center is located at Edwards Air Force Base in Edwards and Palmdale—both in California. Piotrowski serves as both a lead operations engineer and a mission director. He says, “I work with an instrument known as UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar). It is used in science experiments that help people learn about volcanoes, thunderstorms, earthquakes, oil spills, landslides, and many other projects. I love my job because I get to be up close and personal with airplanes. But every single day is different with different assignments.” Piotrowski described how far aircraft have come since the Wright brothers successfully flew their Flyer for a minute on a North Carolina beach.

What is UAVSAR? Why was it created?

UAVSAR sends and receives radio waves to the ground to get information about Earth’s different features. Scientists use UAVSAR to see how Earth’s ground depth is changing—to the nearest centimeter. For example, I flew a mission in Maine where we used UAVSAR to study soil moisture. We first flew over the ground before a rainstorm. Then we flew over the ground after a rainstorm to see how much water the ground absorbed. The information we gathered helped to show where potential areas of flooding were and where better places to plant fruits and vegetables are.