Airborne Campaign Preparing to Probe Pollution-Climate Link

The floor of a NASA hangar and an adjacent laboratory in Southern California’s high desert have been in constant motion this month as scientists prepare their instruments for installation on two of the agency’s specialized science aircraft that will begin a major NASA airborne science campaign in early August.

Technicians and maintenance personnel at NASA’s Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., weigh, install, check, remove and reinstall the instruments prior to a flight dedicated to checking out their operation. The aircraft, a modified DC-8 jetliner and a high-flying ER-2, are being fitted with an eclectic assortment of sensors in preparation for a mission to study how the vertical convection of air pollution and natural emissions affect climate change.

The NASA Studies of Emissions, Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys mission — SEAC⁴RS for short — is the agency’s most complex airborne science study of 2013. Funded by the Earth Science division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, the field campaign draws together coordinated observations from NASA satellites, aircraft and an array of ground sites….

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Image Source: NASA