Unpiloted planes sample California air

Published: May 6, 2008 at 2:57 PM

SAN DIEGO, May 6 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they will use sophisticated unpiloted aircraft to assess Southern California's potential for climate change and sources of air pollution.

Funded by the California Energy Commission, the California Air Pollution Profiling Study uses autonomous unpiloted aerial vehicles, or UAVs, to gather meteorological data as the aircraft fly through clouds and aerosol masses in Southern California, said scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego. Scripps is leading the study, which began its first sortie of data-gathering flights in April.

Scripps Professor Veerabhadran Ramanathan, the project's lead scientist, said the characteristics of Southern California climate and meteorology could make it especially prone to climate change consequences of air pollution.

"These monthly UAV flights will provide unprecedented data for evaluating how long-range transport of pollutants -- including ozone, soot and other particulates from the northwest United States, Canada, east Asia and Mexico -- mix with local pollution and influence our air quality and regional climate including the early melting of snow packs," said Ramanathan.

Data collection will continue through January, with the aircraft profiling atmospheric conditions at altitudes ranging between 2,000 and 12,000 feet.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Order reprints



Additional News Stories
BA and Iberia move close to a deal (21 min)
Leukemia med may also fight ovarian cancer (22 min)
Eye response may reveal autism (23 min)
Neurological disease drug target found? (28 min)
Oil supplies rise in week (38 min)
CDC: Highest rate of smoking in W. Va. (46 min)
Climate change, California droughts linked (51 min)
fark
Woman wins $1M McDonalds Monopoly prize. Plans to use winnings on new house, car, angioplasty
You went full North by Northwest, dude. Never go full North by Northwest
Not news: ex-soldier finds a gun in his garden - Still not news: man hands gun into police - Fark:...
Bow wow wow, yippie yo, yippie yeah, Bow wow yippie yo yippie yeah (c)
Welcome to the internet, where men are men, women are men, and that 14 year old girl you're propositioning...
Using only a cell phone and a pelican, man turns his $2 Million Bugatti into a submarine