NASA plane studies bad air (Checking their doing)

NASA plane studies bad air

Science project tracks pollution


By Charles F. Bostwick
Staff Writer


EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE -- A NASA jetliner packed with three dozen scientists and 11 tons of pollution-measuring gear will fly this summer over the Pacific Coast, the Midwest and the Atlantic as part of a global pollution study.

The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center DC-8 jet took off Thursday on the scientific study's first flight -- nine hours up the California coast to the Washington border and back down the Central Valley, spiraling up and down from 1,000 feet to 41,000 feet altitude.

"We are trying to understand how pollution travels across continents and how it changes as it travels, and what is its impact on air quality and on climate," said lead scientist Hanwant Singh of NASA's Ames Research Center.

The converted four-engine airliner and its scientist passengers leave Edwards on Tuesday for a St. Louis-area airport, its base for missions over the Midwest and into Canada, where its goals include collecting pollution data from forest fires.

In mid-July they go to New England for nine daylong flights along the East Coast and over the Atlantic Ocean.

The flights are part of a global pollution study called the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment-North America. The study is measuring pollution that flows from North America to the Atlantic.

In 2006, scientists plan a similar study into the movement of pollution from Asia toward North America.

Besides NASA's DC-8, which is based at Edwards Air Force Base, the study will include measurements from balloons, American and European satellites, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship and about a dozen other aircraft, ranging from a World War II-era DC-3 to British and French planes and the Burt Rutan-designed Proteus.

The flights will be finished by mid-August. Analyzing and interpreting the results from all the tests will take about a year. Researchers in the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and France are taking part.

"It's a complex, coordinated effort," Singh said.

The DC-8 "flying laboratory" is NASA's main platform for collecting data because of its long range, ability to reach high altitudes and ability to carry a large payload of scientific instruments and scientists.

Instruments measure dozens of substances including carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, organic acids and volatile organic chemicals.

"We have all the measurements going on concurrently. The scientists have the chance to discuss the results as they come in," said Bob Curry, NASA mission manager for the DC-8.

The DC-8 has carried researchers and scientific instruments in a number of other projects, ranging from carrying a special type of radar to study South American and Antarctic glaciers to examining hurricane development off the Florida coast and measuring ozone over the Arctic.

Charles F. Bostwick, (661) 267-5742

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