NASA has started an aerial study to determine the concentrations of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere as part of an effort to monitor their origins.
The Atmospheric Carbon and Transport–America experiment will use C-130H and King Air B-200 aircraft that carry instruments designed to measure the concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane, NASA said Thursday.
ACT-America aims to find the sources and destinations of greenhouse gases with the use of data analysis systems that examine regional data observations of greenhouse gas concentrations and the meteorological conditions.
Scientists will work using the data to interpret long-term greenhouse gas observations in order to determine how weather systems move the gases.
Michael Freilich, director of NASA’s Earth science division at NASA, said the ACT-America campaign is intended to further “the global effort to understand the sources and sinks of greenhouse gases.â€
ACT-America flights will be based out of locations such as NASA’s Langley Research Center and Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia with additional flights scheduled in the summer from Lincoln, Nebraska and Shreveport, Louisiana.
