The Instrument Development and Education in Airborne Science (IDEAS) program is designed to provide flight test opportunities for university instrument developers on research aircraft and to provide opportunities for students to learn about airborne observational science. The "idea" for the IDEAS program came from the annual UCAR Members' Meeting in the fall of 2000. A review of facility needs was conducted at this meeting, and one major discussion issue was that university faculty and students want more opportunities to participate in NCAR instrument development efforts. In particular, they wish to have the opportunity to access facilities that are not easily available to them, such as research aircraft, for their own instrument development efforts. Previous UCAR Members' Meetings also identified the need to train students in observational science. There are few opportunities for students to fly on research aircraft and to actually participate in airborne measurements of clouds or other constituents of the atmosphere.

Three IDEAS programs have been conducted with the NCAR/NSF C130 research aircraft. Several categories of student participants have been included. Students have participated as individuals and as a part of class projects. Faculty members have participated as instrument developers and as student mentors. In this paper, we present the methods we have used to support the students, the types of experiences that students have had, and the results from student research related to their IDEAS participation. We also describe the plans for future IDEAS flights and how interested instructors and students might participate in this program.

Student participation is targeted at higher education students, especially those who may have an interest in a career related to airborne science. Other student participation is considered on a lower priority basis. Faculty members teaching related classes (e.g., instrumentation, air pollution, meteorology, etc.) are welcome to propose measurement needs for class projects using data collected by students during IDEAS. The current URL describing the IDEAS program is at http://raf.atd.ucar.edu/Projects/IDEAS/.