In September 2021, NASA will deploy assets to the Houston, Texas region to measure air quality relevant constituents at high spatial and temporal resolutions. This effort will be conducted in partnership with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Department of Energy (DOE)-led Tracking Aerosol Convection interactions ExpeRiment (TRACER) campaign, and a number of academic collaborators.
Fire emissions in the US are approximately half from Northwestern wildfires and half from prescribed fires that burn mostly in the Southeast US. Wildfires burn slightly more fuel and therefore have overall larger emissions, but prescribed fires dominate the area burned and the number of fires.
Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas causing climate change, with concentrations now 50% higher than just 150 years ago. Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas, with concentrations 150% higher than 150 years ago. Both gases are targeted by the 2016 UN Paris Agreement, which aims to immediately reduce emissions to zero in order to avoid further warming of our planet.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Science Foundation's National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) will conduct a jointly funded two-month campaign in Summer 2022* in the Republic of Korea: the Asian Summer Monsoon Chemical & CLimate Impact Project (ACCLIP).
The Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom) will study the impact of human-produced air pollution on greenhouse gases and on chemically reactive gases in the atmosphere. Reductions of atmospheric concentrations of methane (CH4), tropospheric ozone (O3) and black carbon (BC) aerosols are effective measures to slow global warming and to improve air quality.
The Convective Processes Experiment – Aerosols & Winds (CPEX-AW) campaign is a joint effort between the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) with the primary goal of conducting a post-launch calibration and validation activities of the Atmospheric Dynamics Mission-Aeolus (ADM-AEOLUS) Earth observation wind Lidar satellite in St. Croix.
» Evaluate satellite NO2 in recent coastal campaigns.
» Observations of pollutants & their spatial gradients around Gulf of Mexico (GOM).
2) Conduct Gulf of Mexico (GOM) shipboard feasibility survey, SCOAPE Cruise, with remote and in-situ sensors to validate satellite NO2 and other products.
SEAC4RS - Goals:
1. To determine how pollutant emissions are redistributed via deep convection throughout the troposphere.
2. To determine the evolution of gases and aerosols in deep convective outflow and the implications for UT/LS chemistry.
The Student Airborne Research Program (SARP) is an eight-week summer internship program for rising senior undergraduate students to acquire hands-on research experience in all aspects of a scientific campaign using one or more NASA Airborne Science Program flying science laboratories (aircraft used for SARP have included the DC-8, P-3B, C-23, UC-12B, and ER-2). Read more...
