Steve Cole
Headquarters, Washington
202-385-0918
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov
Michael Finneran
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
757-598-1720
michael.p.finneran@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 11-200
NASA FLIGHTS SEEK TO IMPROVE VIEW OF AIR POLLUTION FROM SPACE
WASHINGTON -- Two NASA research airplanes will fly over the
Baltimore-Washington region and northeast Maryland this summer as
part of a mission to enhance the capability of satellites to measure
ground-level air quality from space.
The campaign is called DISCOVER-AQ, which stands for Deriving
Information on Surface conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved
Observations Relevant to Air Quality. It is one of the five Earth
Venture class of investigations selected last year as part of NASA's
Earth System Science Pathfinder program. These targeted science
investigations complement NASA's larger research missions.
A fundamental challenge for spaceborne instruments monitoring air
quality is to distinguish between pollution high in the atmosphere
and pollution near the surface where people live. The new NASA field
campaign will make measurements from aircraft in combination with
ground-based observation sites to help scientists better understand
how to observe ground-level pollution from space in the future.
"What we're trying to do with DISCOVER-AQ is to fill the knowledge gap
that limits our ability to monitor air pollution with satellites,"
said James Crawford, the mission's principal investigator at NASA's
Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
Since many countries, including the United States, have large gaps in
ground-based networks of air pollution monitors, experts look to
satellites to provide a more complete geographic perspective on the
distribution of pollutants.
A fleet of Earth-observing satellites, called the Afternoon
Constellation or "A-train" will pass over the DISCOVER-AQ study area
each day in the early afternoon. The satellites' data, especially
from the Aqua and Aura spacecraft, will give scientists the
opportunity to compare the view from space with that from the ground
and aircraft.
"The A-Train satellites have been useful in giving us a broader view
of air pollution than has ever been seen," said Kenneth Pickering,
DISCOVER-AQ's project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
in Greenbelt, Md. "DISCOVER-AQ will help interpret that data to
improve air-quality analysis and regional air-quality models."
Initial test flights are planned for the week of June 27, with up to
14 science flights starting as early as July 1. The P-3B, a
four-engine turboprop, will carry nine instruments. The two-engine
UC-12 will carry two instruments. Sampling will focus on an area
extending from Beltsville, Md., to the northeastern corner of
Maryland in a pattern that follows major roadway traffic corridors.
The flight path passes over six ground measurement sites operated by
the Maryland Department of the Environment.
NASA investigators will be joined in the air by colleagues from the
National Center for Atmospheric Research, the University of
California, Berkeley, and the University of Innsbruck in Austria. The
117-foot P-3B will fly low-altitude spiral profiles over the ground
stations. These profiles will extend from 15,000 feet to as low as
1,000 feet from the ground. The flights will sample air along traffic
corridors at low altitude between ground stations.
The smaller King Air UC-12 will collect data from as high as 26,000
feet. The plane's instruments will look down at the surface, much
like a satellite instrument, and measure particulate and gaseous
pollution.
The combined scientific resources are what make DISCOVER-AQ a rare
opportunity for air quality researchers. "One instrument is not more
important than another," said Jennifer Hains, a research statistician
with the Maryland Department of the Environment in Baltimore. "The
combination of all of them makes this campaign valuable."
Ground sites maintained by the Maryland Department of the Environment
form the backbone of the surface network. These sites will be
supplemented by additional instrumentation provided by NASA, the
Environmental Protection Agency, Howard University, Pennsylvania
State University, the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, and
Millersville University in Pennsylvania.
The DISCOVER-AQ flights are the beginning of a four-year campaign that
will bring NASA aircraft to Houston and other urban regions. NASA's
Langley center manages the Earth System Science Pathfinder program
for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
For more information on the DISCOVER-AQ mission and for updates on
when the flights are scheduled to fly, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/discover-aq
-end-
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