NASA’s DC-8 flying laboratory is conducting low-level flights over California’s San Joaquin Valley as part of an Earth science experience for university students and educators July 22 and 24. The aircraft may fly as low as 1,000 feet above ground and fly repeated paths to collect air samples in a corridor between Highway 99 and Interstate 5.
A multinational group of undergraduate and graduate university students are participating in the flights as part of NASA’s Student Airborne Research Program. Also aboard are a group of middle school and high school math and science teachers who are participating in NASA’s Airborne Research Experience for Educators.
From the DC-8 flying laboratory based at NASA’s Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., participants will get a rare behind-the scene look at instrument integration, flight planning, and payload testing that is the basis of every successful Earth Science airborne campaign carried out by NASA.
Divided into the investigative groups of atmospheric science, algal blooms and crop classification, the students and educators are having the opportunity to fly aboard one of two six-hour flights aboard the converted former jetliner from NASA’s Palmdale facility. The aircraft is being flown north over the San Joaquin Valley for an air quality investigation, over the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to observe vegetation and then south over Monterey Bay to research algal blooms before returning to Palmdale.
PHOTO EDITORS: Publication-quality photos of NASA’s DC-8 flying science laboratory are available for downloading at: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/newsphotos/index.html
For more information about NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and its research projects, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden
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Beth Hagenauer
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