FarmFlux Announcements ROSES This website provides general public information and is updated intermittently. The FarmFlux white paper and ROSES solicitation are the official documents describing mission scope. WHAT IS FARMFLUX? FarmFlux is an airborne mission to study the cycling of nitrogen between agricultural systems and the atmosphere. Minimizing agricultural nitrogen losses maximizes agricultural efficiency while improving air quality, thereby protecting both food security and environmental health. Airborne sampling of atmospheric gases and particulate matter will support research related to both animal and crop systems. FarmFlux is part of the NASA Earth Venture Suborbital program (EVS-4). Nitrogen is essential to plant growth and animal production. Large quantities of fertilizer are needed to produce the main crops in the United States, including corn, soybeans and wheat. Many of these crops provide essential feed for animals. Much of the nitrogen consumed by animals is excreted, and the manure can be used to fertilize crops. However, large losses of nitrogen occur during this cycling. While the loss of nitrogen is difficult to quantify because it occurs through both the air and water, a full understanding of nitrogen loss is needed to ensure U.S. agriculture is resilient to changing weather patterns and economic pressures. FarmFlux will quantify the loss of nitrogen to the atmosphere and track its downwind fate. From the perspective of the atmosphere, agriculture is the single largest source of ammonia (NH3), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) in the U.S.(EPA, 2017, 2022), and agricultural soils are an increasingly important source of nitrogen oxides (NOx) (Geddes et al., 2022). NH3 is a major precursor to particulate matter (PM), and soil NOx emissions are a precursor to tropospheric ozone (O3), both of which are criteria pollutants (EPA, 2020a, 2020b). Current estimates attribute over 10,000 deaths per year in the U.S. to agricultural PM (Domingo et al., 2021). CH4 and N2O are greenhouse gases, and N2O contributes to destruction of ozone in the stratosphere. Thus a full coupled understanding of the agricultural-atmospheric interface is important for clean air and planetary health. The agricultural economy is also highly sensitive to air quality. For example, near-surface ozone damages crops, leading to billions of dollars per year in yield loss (WMO, 2023). Farm workers are especially susceptible to adverse health effects from agricultural emissions, and air pollution reduces productivity by economically meaningful amounts (Hill et al., 2023). Air pollution and temperature impact dairy cow production and health (Beaupied et al., 2022; Cox et al., 2017). Food security is central to our prosperity, as is the health and wellbeing of our communities and the planet. To develop effective agricultural and environmental policy, we must understand the coupling of the agricultural and atmospheric systems. Current observations at the agriculture-atmosphere interface are sparse and not sufficient to properly evaluate emission inventories or improve predictions of future impacts. In particular, we have an incomplete grasp of how processes central to nitrogen cycling will respond to different farming management practices and changing weather patterns. WHAT WILL FARMFLUX MEASURE? FarmFlux will deploy two aircraft to characterize relevant processes over crops and animal feeding operations. A heavy-lift aircraft equipped with in situ gas and particle instrumentation will survey major U.S. crop systems. Airborne eddy covariance will directly quantify emissions and deposition of trace gases. Observations of aerosol chemical, physical, and optical properties will elucidate the sources and impacts of PM. A key strategy of FarmFlux is the simultaneous measurement of multiple variables. This dataset will reveal the coupling between key processes and allow us to map the atmospheric lifecycle of agricultural emissions. A small aircraft will quantify emissions from animal feeding operations and trace their near-source evolution. Flights will focus on beef cattle, dairies, hogs, and chickens. By connecting variability in emission rates with on-the-ground management practices and environmental conditions, FarmFlux will lay the groundwork for improved emission parameterizations. Observations from FarmFlux will provide unprecedented opportunities to evaluate model treatments of agricultural pollutant sources and fate, constrain agricultural emission inventories, and refine flux parameterization schemes. Multiscale modeling and synthesis with detailed surface information will illuminate the path from agricultural practices to impacts on air quality, climate, and ecosystems. WHERE AND WHEN WILL FARMFLUX OCCUR? Agricultural activities are most intense in the Midwest and the California Central Valley. The large aircraft will operate in both regions during several month-long deployments spanning the length of a single growing season (March – July). The small aircraft will travel to emission hotspots in CA, ID, TX, CO, and IA in multiple seasons. Flights will begin no earlier than summer 2026. FarmFlux will provide new data relevant to core U.S. agricultural regions, where atmospheric measurements of nitrogen-containing species are particularly sparse. Background shows oversampled ammonia columns from the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) [29]. Black/blue stars and circles show deployment locations and rough ranges for the large and small aircraft, respectively. Triangles and circles denote Ammonia Monitoring Network (AMoN) and Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sites. WHY NASA? NASA’s Earth Science Division explores the connections between Earth systems and provides trusted information that can support applications and decisions. Agriculture lies at the nexus of multiple systems: atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and human society. NASA data is widely used for both air quality and agricultural management. FarmFlux observations will bridge these disciplines. FarmFlux will also enhance the science achievable from current and upcoming satellite missions, such as TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) and CrIS (Cross-track Infrared Sounder). Observations from FarmFlux will validate satellite retrievals and provide ground truth for inferred emission rates. USEFUL LINKS EVS-4 press release FarmFlux Illustrated Summary FarmFlux Announcements FarmFlux White Paper (final) REFERENCES Beaupied, B. L., Martinez, H., Martenies, S., McConnel, C. S., Pollack, I. B., Giardina, D., Fischer, E. V., Jathar, S., Duncan, C. G., & Magzamen, S. (2022). Cows as canaries: The effects of ambient air pollution exposure on milk production and somatic cell count in dairy cows. Environmental Research, 207, 112197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.112197 Cox, B., Gasparrini, A., Catry, B., Fierens, F., Vangronsveld, J., & Nawrot, T. S. (2016). Ambient Air Pollution-related Mortality in Dairy Cattle: Does It Corroborate Human Findings? Epidemiology, 27(6), 779–786. https://doi.org/10.1097/EDE.0000000000000545 Domingo, N. G. G., Balasubramanian, S., Thakrar, S. K., Clark, M. A., Adams, P. J., Marshall, J. D., Muller, N. Z., Pandis, S. N., Polasky, S., Robinson, A. L., Tessum, C. W., Tilman, D., Tschofen, P., & Hill, J. D. (2021). Air quality–related health damages of food. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(20), e2013637118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2013637118 Geddes, J. A., Pusede, S. E., & Wong, A. Y. H. (2022). Changes in the relative importance of biogenic isoprene and soil NOx emissions on ozone concentrations in nonattainment areas of the United States. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 127(13), e2021JD036361. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JD036361 EPA (2017). 2017 National Emissions Inventory (NEI) Data. https://www.epa.gov/air-emissions-inventories/2017-national-emissions-i… EPA (2020a, April 13). National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM [Other Policies and Guidance]. https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/national-ambient-air-quality-standards… EPA (2020b, July 10). Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) [Other Policies and Guidance]. https://www.epa.gov/ground-level-ozone-pollution/ozone-national-ambient… EPA (2022). Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2020. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-…WMO. (2023). The Impacts of Tropospheric Ozone Pollution on Crop Yield: Mechanisms, Quantification and Options for Mitigation (1341). https://library.wmo.int/records/item/68654-the-impacts-of-tropospheric-…
