NASA Invites Media to Preview Pollution-Climate Science Flights Aug. 22

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Aug 16, 2013, 02:45 ET

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA has changed the day for a behind-the-scenes look at the agency's airborne campaign to study how storm systems combine with air pollution from wildfires and other sources to affect our climate. NASA now will host its pollution-climate science flights media day from 1-3 p.m. CDT on Thursday, Aug. 22, in Houston.

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Events taking place at NASA Johnson Space Center's Ellington Field that day include a briefing with mission scientists and flight crews, followed by tours of the aircraft and interviews. U.S. reporters must register by Monday, Aug. 19. To arrange for credentials, contact William Jeffs at 281-483-5111 or [email protected].

The campaign currently underway is NASA's most complex airborne science study of the year, drawing together coordinated observations from NASA satellites, aircraft and ground sites. The mission's primary aircraft are the DC-8, carrying 31 scientific instruments, and the high-altitude single-pilot ER-2, with 15 instruments.

More than 200 scientists and support personnel are involved in the mission that is flying across the southern United States into September. Aircraft participating in the Studies of Emissions, Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys mission -- also known as SEAC4RS -- will fly out of Ellington Field.

The SEAC4RS media event follows another media opportunity at Ellington Field that day where plans to relocate the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft to Space Center Houston will be announced. For more information about this separate event, contact Jack Moore with Space Center Houston at 281-244-2137 or [email protected].

For more information about the SEAC4RS mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/seac4rs

SOURCE NASA