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NASA aircraft to study how pollution, storms and climate interact

NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory for the Studies of Emissions, Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) campaign to investigate how pollution and natural emissions affect atmospheric composition and climate. Credit: NASA/Lori Losey
NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory for the Studies of Emissions, Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) campaign to investigate how pollution and natural emissions affect atmospheric composition and climate. Credit: NASA/Lori Losey

HOUSTON, June 6 (UPI) -- NASA says it will conduct research flights over the southern United States to study how pollution, storms and climate mix and affect each other.

In the agency's most complex airborne science campaign of the year, several aircraft will take to the skies this summer to investigate how air pollution and natural emissions, when pushed high into the atmosphere by large storms, affect atmospheric composition and climate.

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Beginning in August flights will originate from Houston's Ellington Field, which is operated by its Johnson Space Center, NASA reported Thursday.

The science campaign will combine the data gathered by aircraft missions with information from NASA satellites and an array of ground sites.

"In summertime across the United States, emissions from large seasonal fires, metropolitan areas and vegetation are moved upward by thunderstorms and the North American Monsoon," lead project scientist Brian Tool of the University of Colorado, Boulder, said. "When these chemicals get into the stratosphere they can affect the whole Earth. They also may influence how thunderstorms behave."

The mission should help scientist better understand how all these events interact, he said.

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