Major NASA Air Pollution Study to Fly Over California

Jan. 10, 2013

Steve Cole
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0918
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

Kathy Barnstorff
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
757-864-9886
kathy.barnstorff@nasa.gov


RELEASE: 13-016

MAJOR NASA AIR POLLUTION STUDY TO FLY OVER CALIFORNIA

WASHINGTON -- A multi-year NASA airborne science mission is on its way
to California to help scientists better understand how to measure and
forecast air quality globally from space. Two NASA aircraft equipped
with scientific instruments will fly over the San Joaquin Valley
between Bakersfield and Fresno in January and February to measure air
pollution. One aircraft will fly within 1,000 feet of the ground.

The aircraft are part of NASA's five-year DISCOVER-AQ study, which
stands for Deriving Information on Surface conditions from Column and
Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality. Its
researchers are working to improve the ability of satellites to
consistently observe air quality in the lowest part of the
atmosphere. If scientists could better observe pollution from space,
they would be able to make better air quality forecasts and more
accurately determine where pollution is coming from and why emissions
vary.

A fundamental challenge for space-based instruments monitoring air
quality is to distinguish between pollution high in the atmosphere
and pollution near the surface where people live. DISCOVER-AQ will
make measurements from aircraft in combination with ground-based
monitoring sites to help scientists better understand how to observe
ground-level pollution from space.

"DISCOVER-AQ is collecting data that will prepare us to make better
observations from space, as well as determine the best mix of
observations to have at the surface when we have new satellite
instruments in orbit," said James Crawford, the mission's principal
investigator at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. "NASA
is planning to launch that satellite instrument, called TEMPO, in
2017."

Because 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
daily in the early afternoon. The satellites' data, especially from
NASA's 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 we've ever had before," said Kenneth Pickering,
DISCOVER-AQ's project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
in Greenbelt, Md. "DISCOVER-AQ will help scientists interpret that
data to improve air-quality analysis and regional air quality
models."

Test flights are scheduled to start Jan. 16 with science flights
continuing through mid-February. A four-engine P-3B turboprop plane
from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va., will
carry eight instruments. A two-engine B200 King Air aircraft from
Langley will carry two instruments. Sampling will focus on
agricultural and vehicle traffic areas extending from Bakersfield to
Fresno. The flight path passes over six ground measurement sites
operated by the California Air Resources Board and the San Joaquin
Valley Air Pollution Control District.

The117-foot-long P-3B will fly spiral flights over the ground
stations. These flights will be from an altitude of 15,000 feet to as
low as 1,000 feet. They will sample air along agricultural and
traffic corridors at low altitudes between the ground stations. The
smaller B200 King Air will collect data from as high as 26,000 feet.
The plane's instruments will look down at the surface, much like a
satellite, and measure particulate and gaseous air pollution. The two
airplanes will fly from NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in
Palmdale, Calif.

The DISCOVER-AQ mission is a partnership with the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
and University of California campus branches in Berkeley, Davis,
Irvine, and Santa Barbara. Other partners in the California campaign
include the National Center for Atmospheric Research; the University
of Maryland in College Park and Baltimore County; University of
Colorado, Boulder; Pennsylvania State University, State College;
University of Innsbruck in Austria; and Millersville University,
Millersville, Penn.

DISCOVER-AQ is an Earth Venture mission, part of the Earth System
Science Pathfinder program managed at Langley for the Earth Science
Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

DISCOVER-AQ is one of several active airborne science missions being
featured during a media day Jan. 25 at Dryden. Reporters interested
in attending must register by Jan. 11 with Dryden's Public Affairs
Office by email at DrydenPAO@nasa.gov or phone at 661-276-3449.

For more information on DISCOVER-AQ, visit:

http://discover-aq.larc.nasa.gov


and


http://go.nasa.gov/UPV0yr


-end-



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