Mission Support System (MSS) development
Final Report Abstract
On aircraft measuring campaigns, many scientists collaborate to generate the most scientific progress with the limited flight time. One tool to improve the planning and exploitation of scientific flights is the open source software Mission Support System (MSS). This tool, which has been initially designed more than ten years ago, has been used in many aircraft campaigns, in particular it was used in the POLSTRACC, WISE, SouthTRAC, EMeRGe, and CIRRUS-HL campaigns involving the German Gulfstream G 550 HALO aircraft. Since 2015, the development of MSS is steered from the IEK-7 institute at FZJ, leveraging more than two decades of experience in flight planning and execution. This project set out to improve the general state of the software and implement several technical features that were beyond the scope of the part-time development of the scientists using the software. And the project in succeeding in achieving most of its goals. In particular, the MSS project is now available on the popular github web page leveraging the powerful testing capabilities offered by continuous integration to discover problems in the software early. Also, the most recent version of the OGC web mapping service 1.3.1, which underpins the interaction between the planning tool and the model data providing the basis for the planning itself, has been fully implemented, including the powerful feature of displaying multiple layers on top of each other. Aside many quality-of-life improvements, a major improvement is the automatic generation of tutorial videos demonstrating the use of the software to new users. The project concluded with a paper submission to GMD detailing the advances and show-casing the use of MSS during the SouthTRAC HALO measurement campaign.
