Search On for Climate Clues Across Southern U.S. Skies

NASA research aircraft began flights Aug. 12 from Houston’s Ellington Field to investigate how the combination of summer storms and rising air pollution from wildfires, cities, and other sources can change our climate.

Hoping to improve future predictions of climate change, scientists in the NASA study are using the skies over much of the southern United States as a natural laboratory this month and into September. They are grappling with one of the tougher factors driving Earth’s climate engine: the seasonal push of a complex soup of gases and particles high into the atmosphere when regional weather systems and pollution sources are particularly strong.

The ambitious airborne science campaign is called SEAC4RS, which stands for the Studies of Emissions, Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys. The field campaign draws together coordinated observations from NASA satellites, aircraft, and an array of ground sites. More than 250 scientists, engineers, and flight personnel are participating in the mission. Brian Toon of the University of Colorado Boulder is SEAC4RS lead scientist….

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Image Source: NASA