FIREX-AQ: Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality

Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ), a joint venture led by NOAA and NASA, provides comprehensive observations to investigate the impact on air quality and climate from wildfires and agricultural fires across the continental United States. (Click link for more info)

NCAS-M Distinguished Research Scientist, Dr. Charles Ichoku, will serve as the Science PI of the MASTER airborne instrument that will perform fire remote sensing aboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft.

Click the link to see a full list of researchers, including our own from Howard University! https://espo.nasa.gov/firex-aq/content/FIREX-AQ_Participants

NCAS-M ETSP Intern (2019), Alexandra Grayson will be helping with analysis of fire observations from MASTER and satellites.

NCAS-M Director, Dr. Vernon Morris, will be providing expert insight on analysis of smoke impacts on atmospheric chemistry.

Additionally, NCAS-M leverage student, Craig Battle (PhD candidate in Chemistry), will be participating in the modeling and analysis of smoke chemistry using the GEOS-Chem model in collaboration with scientists from Colorado State University, Fort Collins.

FIREX-AQ Schedule
Palmdale, CA July 15–19, 2019

Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ), a joint venture led by NOAA and NASA, provides comprehensive observations to investigate the impact on air quality and climate from wildfires and agricultural fires across the continental United States. (https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/csd/projects/firex-aq/). The test flights preceding the actual field campaign are being conducted this week (July 15–19, 2019) in conjunction with the NASA Student Airborne Research Program (SARP) out of the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) in Palmdale, CA.

Boise, ID July 22 – Aug 18

Dr. Charles Ichoku (NCAS-M Distinguished Research Scientist), who is serving as the Science PI of the MASTER airborne instrument that will perform fire remote sensing aboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft. (https://espo.nasa.gov/firex-aq/content/FIREX-AQ_Participants), is present at NASA/AFRC to interact with the rest of the FIREX-AQ team and the SARP students, and prepare for the actual field deployment that starts on July 22, 2019 out of Boise, ID.

COMING SOON: Salina, KS Aug 19 – Sep 4, 2019

Stay tuned for more updates from the field!

The NASA Student Airborne Research Program (SARP) is an annual “eight-week summer internship program for rising senior undergraduate students to acquire hands-on research experience in all aspects of a scientific campaign using one or more NASA Airborne Science Program flying science laboratories” (https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/earthscience/programs/airbornescience/studentairborneresearchprogram). I encourage underrepresented minority students in their junior years to watch out for the SARP announcements (typically in the fall semester) and apply to gain extraordinary skills from this unique hands-on experience of participating in actual field campaigns with professional scientists using state-of-the-art scientific instrumentation and analysis techniques.