NASA has launched a series of lengthy flights throughout Asia using the world’s largest flying laboratory in an ambitious attempt to enhance models used to forecast and combat air pollution. Every year, air pollution causes millions of deaths, and enhancing our capacity to detect its sources and behaviour can lead to more effective public warning systems. Starting this week in the Philippines, the US agency’s DC-8 will fly for up to eight hours at a time, often only 15 metres (50 feet) over the ground, to collect air particles for analysis. “We can provide direct measurements of how much pollution is coming from different sources. And that’s one of the primary inputs to the air quality forecasting models,” NASA’s Barry Lefer told reporters Thursday at Clark International Airport, around 80 km (50 miles) north of Manila.
Air quality forecasting is based on observations from ground stations and satellites, but both systems have limitations in terms of determining how contaminants travel in the air, according to scientists. Readings from aircraft can help to close the gap, enhance satellite data interpretation, and lead to more accurate models. According to Maria Antonia Loyzaga, secretary of the Philippines Department of Environment and Natural Resources, combining air, space, and ground readings is required for policy “regarding public health, regarding industrial compliance, regarding… ecosystem preservation and conservation”.
The NASA lab has flown twice this week in a figure-eight pattern over some of the Philippines’
The NASA lab, which is equipped with dozens of highly sensitive instruments, has flown twice this week in a figure-eight pattern over some of the Philippines’ most heavily inhabited areas, including the capital district, according to FlightAware. It was joined by a smaller NASA Gulfstream jet equipped with gear capable of creating three-dimensional maps of air pollution. In the coming weeks, the jets will also fly research missions over South Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand.
The study’s findings will be made public after a year, according to NASA programme officials. The ASIA-AQ initiative is a collaboration between the US agency and governments in a region with some of the world’s highest rates of air pollution-related deaths. In the coming weeks, the jets will also fly research missions over South Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand. The study’s findings will be made public after a year, according to NASA programme officials. The ASIA-AQ initiative is a collaboration between the US agency and governments in a region with some of the world’s highest rates of air pollution-related deaths. Maria Cambaliza, a scientist at the Manila Observatory, told reporters Thursday that Asia accounts for around one-third of global air pollution-related mortality. In the Philippines, she added, there are 100 such deaths per 100,000 people.
