WASHINGTON — NASA will be conducting atmospheric studies over the D.C. region for a few weeks. From July 5 until July 16, the NASA aircraft will be flying from D.C. to Baltimore and Hampton over the I-95 corridor.
The aircraft, which is based at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, will be flying at altitudes as high as 10,000 feet for five days out of the 12 for the study, officials say.
NASA will be flying a four-engine P-3 aircraft and it will be collecting atmospheric data from urban, rural, vegetation and water surfaces for what NASA says is a variety of scientific projects.
The flights from this project are part of the Students Airborne Science Activation program which is coordinated by the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffet Field, California. Students from Howard University, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Coppin State University, Morgan State University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Hampton University will be enrolled in this program as part of the program's initiatives "to broaden the ethnic and racial diversity of researchers in Earth sciences," according to a press release.
NASA says that the P-3 aircraft can be tracked with the NASA Airborne Science Tracker in real-time by searching for the plane icon that is labeled as 'NASA P-3 (N426NA).' Officials add that there will be updates on flights available on the Facebook and Twitter accounts of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. The estimated time the P-3 aircraft will fly over the I-95 corridor and Hampton will be posted the day before, according to officials.