The DC-8 airborne laboratory is one of several NASA aircraft that will fly in support the five new Earth Venture class missions to launch this year (Photo: NASA)

With the goal of shedding more light on a number of Earth system processes whose effect on our climate is incompletely understood, NASA will this year launch five new airborne field campaigns. These studies will look at long-range air pollution, warming ocean waters, melting Greenland glaciers, greenhouse gas sources, fires in Africa and clouds over the Atlantic, with the captured data to complement satellite- and surface-based observations to help provide a better understanding of the interconnected systems that affect our climate and how it is changing.

The missions were selected from a list of 33 proposals, with each to be funded by up to US$30 million over five years as part of the Earth Venture-class of missions. These are a series of uncoupled, relatively low-to-moderate cost, small to medium-sized, competitively selected missions, the first series of which were undertaken in 2010.

"These innovative airborne experiments will let us probe inside processes and locations in unprecedented detail that complements what we can do with our fleet of Earth-observing satellites," said Jack Kaye, associate director for research in NASA's Earth Science Division.

In total, these five new projects will involve seven NASA centers, 25 universities and other educational institutions, three American government agencies and two industry partners.

Source: NASA

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NASA takes climate change studies to the air