NASA Planes Fly Over Bay Area To Measure Air Pollution Levels

An anonymous reader writes "NASA is trying to measure the air pollution by flying a plane at various altitudes over the bay area. The tests are a part of a larger effort led by the DISCOVER-AQ campaign — a multi-year program launched across the United States in 2011 by NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. DISCOVER-AQ stands for Deriving Information on Surface conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality. NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., is the lead center for the mission."

Comments

which bay would that be?

[Anonymous Coward]

not everyone lives in san fransisco, you know

Re:which bay would that be?

[afaik_ianal]

Seriously? I have lived in Australia all my life, and I know exactly what "Bay Area" means.

Re:which bay would that be?

[MisterSquid]

To measure the pollution coming from the Bay Area, planes should take air samples above Fresno because the Central Valley is the Bay Area's meteorological tailpipe.

(Actually, it's probably pointless since the entire Central Valley is also polluted by crop dusting.)

Abbreviation

[fotoguzzi]

Why is it not DISCOVEROR-AQ ?

Infinite loop!

[sjwt]

Oh dear, this will not end well, they will have to keep sending new planes to measure the added pollution of the last one, this will carry on until in the end NASA will have used the last of our fossil fuels! Oh wait, with NASA's current budget, I guess they wont be able to do this more than 3 times.. Infinite loop avoided.