NASA Launches New Airborne Missions to Study Earth's Climate and Environment
NASA is set to launch six new suborbital Earth Venture missions, deploying aircraft to conduct science flights this summer. These campaigns involve hundreds of scientists and institutions, focusing on phenomena ranging from severe wildfires to agricultural emissions and urban air quality. The data collected through airborne remote sensing aims to enhance computer models used by forecasters and city planners.
NASA is preparing to begin science flights for six new suborbital Earth Venture missions. The first of these airborne campaigns will commence this summer, mobilizing hundreds of scientists and pilots from NASA, the U.S. Navy, universities, and other institutions over the next several years.
A defining characteristic of these suborbital missions is the utilization of sensors mounted on aircraft. This airborne remote sensing acts as a bridge between ground-based instruments and satellites, providing data that can fill gaps in computer models used by various professionals, including weather forecasters and city planners.
One of the initial projects, the Injected Smoke and PYRocumulonimbus Experiment (INSPYRE), led by the Naval Research Laboratory, will investigate towering "fire clouds" generated by extreme wildfires. This mission, based in Colorado, will use several aircraft, including NASA’s high-altitude ER-2 flying out of Montana, to carry instruments such as two state-of-the-art infrared wildfire trackers developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
Another mission, FarmFlux, will focus on agricultural emissions, which are an important yet understudied component of Earth's land and atmosphere systems. Kicking off this year, FarmFlux will deploy over a dozen sensors to measure pollutants like ozone, methane, and ammonia rising from agricultural lands and animal farms, specifically from the Midwest to California’s Central Valley. This mission is led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Colorado State University, and Boston University.
The Hemispheric Airborne Measurements of Air Quality (HAMAQ) mission will examine air quality concerns in Atlanta and Mexico City. This project aims to explore the differing causes of air pollution in these two capital cities and assess how satellite information can aid forecasting efforts.
NASA’s 777 aircraft has undergone structural modifications, including enlarged cabin windows and instrument portals, transforming it into a flying laboratory for these scientific endeavors.
According to NASA Breaking News, these missions are designed to deliver science that will benefit communities across the United States and beyond.
