NASA To Fly Low Over Maryland Region For Air Quality Study

baltimore.cbslocal.com...

NASA To Fly Low Over Maryland Region For Air Quality Study

WASHINGTON (WJZ)—Don’t panic if you see large planes flying unusually low over Maryland roadways next week. It’s all part of a major plan by NASA to help study air pollution over major cities.

Derek Valcourt explains where you’ll be seeing some of those low-flying planes.

The study will focus on air pollution over many of Maryland’s major roads, from Baltimore’s beltway, to the 95 corridor, even over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

This is no ordinary plane, it’s a specially fitted NASA aircraft designed with equipment to measure air pollution levels in flight. And starting next week the skies over Maryland will become a pollution detection playground for the plane and for NASA scientists.

“The public I think is very interested in knowing where air pollution problems are the largest, and then they have the ability to make their own decisions about their own activities and times and places they would like to avoid,” said Dr. James Crawford, NASA atmospheric scientist.

Maryland’s Department of Environment already has six pollution monitoring stations on the ground, but they’re spread out and only can tell you pollution levels in the immediate area.

On the other hand, NASA satellites already monitor air pollution across the globe, but those readings have their own problems.

“But you can’t really tell from the satellite data itself whether that pollution is somewhere higher in the atmosphere or down near the surface,” said Dr. Kenneth Pickering, NASA atmospheric scientist.

That’s where these special planes come in.

They’ll fly low over busy roadways collecting data and then fly in spiral patterns over the six ground monitoring stations Maryland already has in place, helping NASA scientists to determine how much air pollution is down where we breathe.

“It’s a challenging mission,” said Rich Rodgers, NASA research pilot. “One of the most challenging because we are doing it over the top of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore this summer.”

NASA pilots are now warning Marylanders to be on the lookout as their planes fly as low as 1000 feet off the ground in the coming month.

Test flights will begin next week. NASA says in all they expect 14 science flights in July, taking their planes from Washington beltway over Baltimore and up to northeastern Maryland near the Delaware line.

The flight dates will be determined by the weather and announced by NASA by 5 p.m. the day before a flight.

reply to post by sinfall


Wow! This is very unusual.

Funny they say 6 monitoring stations are not enough to get accurate results for air quality. The EPA begs to differ. They say that their radiation monitoring stations don't need to be in every region and they say that you can just check out neighboring states for similar numbers... go figure. Someone's lying...

Also, why do they want to test the pollution? Is it REALLY just testing the pollution? Or are they testing for other things?

NASA is not credible or accountable to the public. If they use taxpayer dollars, then they should be.

reply to post by TETRA.X



Also, why NASA? Why not the EPA?
Something stinks....

Haven't found anything related to something similar happening in other cities. Not sure why they chose Baltimore

Originally posted by sinfall
Haven't found anything related to something similar happening in other cities. Not sure why they chose Baltimore

discover-aq.larc.nasa.gov...

The campaign will employ NASA aircraft to make a series of flights, with scientific instruments on board to measure gaseous and particulate pollution, beginning in 2011. The series of flights -- which will be made by NASA Langley's King Air and NASA's P-3B – will commence over Baltimore-Washington, D.C. in 2011. Other future flights may include Houston (2013); Sacramento (2013); and a final site in 2014 to be determined. The measurements will be taken in concert with ground observations in order to shed light on how satellites could be used to make similar, consistent measurements over time, with the ultimate goal of putting better data in the hands of policymakers and elected officials.

Basically they are trying to calibrate the satellites.

Wonder why the need to space them out years apart

reply to post by Uncinus


Calibrating satellites? No, I don't think so. That doesn't make any sense at all....
Believe what you want. I don't agree with you. My spidey senses are on fire!!!!!

Originally posted by TETRA.X
reply to post by Uncinus

 

Calibrating satellites? No, I don't think so. That doesn't make any sense at all....
Believe what you want. I don't agree with you. My spidey senses are on fire!!!!!

It makes perfect sense. They need to make the satellite observations match the actual in-air observations. So they record both at once, and figure out the mathematically relationship between them. Then in future they can just use the satellite observations. It's calibrating - like zeroing a scale, or tuning a guitar (but a bit more complicated).

Originally posted by TETRA.X
reply to post by Uncinus

 

Calibrating satellites? No, I don't think so. That doesn't make any sense at all....
Believe what you want. I don't agree with you. My spidey senses are on fire!!!!!

Oh well if your spidey senses are tingling than that's clear evidence that the reptilian overlords are really doing it to hide niiru from us so the NWO can flouridate Atlantis!

the article mentions that satellites have problems telling the altitude of pollution - it makes perfect sense to do something like this to improve their performance.

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


If you're involved in this thread, then it must be a VERY sensitive topic indeed.
Hmmm....are we getting too close to the truth???

reply to post by Uncinus


I don't agree with you with all due respect.
There are accurate air monitoring equipments already in place.

"Ambient air monitoring involves the measurement of specific pollutants present in an immediate surrounding atmosphere. Most Major urban areas often operate several ambient air monitoring instruments, each dedicated to measuring specific target pollutants."

source: www.cleanairworld.org...




From a satellite, an instrument called MAPS can measure even carbon dioxide at a little over 1 mile to 6 miles from the surface of the Earth.

"The MAPS instrument measures the distribution of carbon monoxide in the Earth's lower atmosphere
(3 to 10 kilometers above the surface), from latitude 57 degrees North to latitude 57 degrees South.
The MAPS measurements provide scientists with the only near-global database of atmospheric carbon monoxide levels. These unique measurements help scientists understand how well the atmosphere can cleanse itself of pollutants such as carbon monoxide. In addition, the MAPS measurements help scientists better understand both how far pollutants are transported from their source areas and the size of the sources."

Source: www.nasa.gov...


They have enough technology in place that planes flying at 1,000 feet over an area are NOT NECESSARY. The MAPS instrument can detect air from 2-6 miles above the surface of the planet. The Ambient air monitoring instrument measures immediate atmosphere in the area.

The only 2 reasons that I can come up with that NASA is flying these planes:

1) NASA is testing something else, probably something alarming. Or
2) The satellites are not getting accurate readings because of the chemtrails. The metallic particles are obscuring the data.

Originally posted by TETRA.X
reply to post by Uncinus

 

I don't agree with you with all due respect.
There are accurate air monitoring equipments already in place.

"Ambient air monitoring involves the measurement of specific pollutants present in an immediate surrounding atmosphere. Most Major urban areas often operate several ambient air monitoring instruments, each dedicated to measuring specific target pollutants."

source: www.cleanairworld.org...

Sure - but that's only the "immediate surrounding area" - is you want a wide map you need thousands of such station.

From a satellite, an instrument called MAPS can measure even carbon dioxide at a little over 1 mile to 6 miles from the surface of the Earth.

"The MAPS instrument measures the distribution of carbon monoxide in the Earth's lower atmosphere
(3 to 10 kilometers above the surface), from latitude 57 degrees North to latitude 57 degrees South.
The MAPS measurements provide scientists with the only near-global database of atmospheric carbon monoxide levels. These unique measurements help scientists understand how well the atmosphere can cleanse itself of pollutants such as carbon monoxide. In addition, the MAPS measurements help scientists better understand both how far pollutants are transported from their source areas and the size of the sources."

Source: www.nasa.gov...

3 km = 10,000 feet - well above the heights being flown here.

Perhaps they are trying to extend that ower limit downwards and establish accuracy at lower altitudes if this is being used for those systems.

They have enough technology in place that planes flying at 1,000 feet over an area are NOT NECESSARY. The MAPS instrument can detect air from 2-6 miles above the surface of the planet. The Ambient air monitoring instrument measures immediate atmosphere in the area.

as above - 1000 feet is only ~1/5th a mile - the current lower limit is 2 miles/3 km. that's quite a difference.

Also if the rules over ther are anythng like the rules here, 1000 ft is actully a legal altitude to fly at in uncontrolled airspace over built up areas without any further approval at all - if they were here they could do it without announcing it if they wanted to.

The only 2 reasons that I can come up with that NASA is flying these planes:

1) NASA is testing something else, probably something alarming. Or
2) The satellites are not getting accurate readings because of the chemtrails. The metallic particles are obscuring the data.

You've provided sources that also support:

3/ They are seeking information to lower the accurate limit below the current one of 2 miles/3 km.

2/ is clearly nonsense if they can currently measure down to 2 miles/3km/10,000 feet and "chemtrails" are usually up around 30,000 + feet.

And if 1/ then why bother announcing it at all? they could just do it, not say anythnig, and the few people who noticed the flights would probably get fobbed off with something like "it's jsut local VFR traffic".

3/ is actually the only explaination that fits.

Originally posted by TETRA.X
reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul

 

If you're involved in this thread, then it must be a VERY sensitive topic indeed.
Hmmm....are we getting too close to the truth???

I think the truth was in the OP article - they are seeking to improve the accuracy of their satellites.

Why is my presence significant??? Especially since I'm not actually in the USA at all - although I do have a sister, brother-in-law and neice who livein LA, and I've had 2 x 2 week holidays there - 1 30 years ago, the other 11 ytrs ago??

Originally posted by TETRA.X
reply to post by TETRA.X

 

Also, why NASA? Why not the EPA?
Something stinks....

Something stinks? Yes, it stinks that the EPA doesn't have airplanes, so they had to contract NASA (who does have airplanes) to help them in this study.

reply to post by adeclerk


What stinks is that they are so concerned about pollution when they should be more concerned about radiation, water, air and food testing, GMOs, chemtrails, fluoride in water, vaccines, ....etc. etc.....

Shame on them!!!!!!

My opinion (which last I checked I'm allowed to have...since we are still not a completely fascist country) still stands. Like it or not....

Testing for pollution my ass.
If anything it's to check and see how the chem trail spraying is coming along.

Originally posted by TETRA.X
reply to post by adeclerk

 

What stinks is that they are so concerned about pollution when they should be more concerned about radiation, water, air and food testing

And what are they going to test them for, if not pollution? What gets in the water and air that is not pollution.

Of course they should test for pollution. That's their job.

Originally posted by TETRA.X
What stinks is that they are so concerned about pollution when they should be more concerned about radiation, water, air and food testing, GMOs, chemtrails, fluoride in water, vaccines, ....etc. etc......

They are already testing for radiation every day, water air and food tests already occur every day as well. GMOs are strictly regulated by the FDA, vaccines as well. Fluoride is harmless, notice how the death rate isn't any higher in countries with fluoridated water than those without? And chemtrails don't exist, so what do they need to worry about?

Originally posted by adeclerk
Fluoride is harmless, notice how the death rate isn't any higher in countries with fluoridated water than those without?

Gonna have to step in on this one. Its off topic but it has to be refuted.

Fluoride does calcify the pineal gland and lowers melatonin levels. That is 100% proven true. How harmless it is is up for debate.

Fluoride & the Pineal Gland

If you're ok with unnatural accumulations of toxins in your body this won't bug you, but for those of us who do care its a big deal.

If I brush my teeth three times a day, why do I need fluoride in my water?

reply to post by FreeSpeaker


Do you use fluoridated toothpaste?

And does everyone else in yor area do so? How about the children?

I have a mouthfull of amalgum and ceramic fillings - everytooth behind my incisors has 1 or more fillings. Most of them were put in before I left school in hte mid-1970's - since then they've been replaced and extended, but very few new ones have been added.

My kids have none at all (age 15 and 17).