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Earth Expeditions

Viewing Posts from January 2020

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    A Wintry Flight

    The NASA P-3 Orion on the runway ready for IMPACTS' second science flight on Jan. 25, 2020, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Credit: NASA/Katie Jepson

    By Ellen Gray /NASA'S WALLOPS FLIGHT FACILITY, VIRGINIA/ After a cloudy and rainy morning, by 1:50 pm the sun had come out and the skies were clear for take-off at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The P-3 Orion research aircraft outfitted with eleven instruments to measure conditions inside snow clouds was heading north to …

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    Meet IMPACTS’ Student Forecasters

    Map of freezing levels - the altitude at which the temperature is 0°C in the atmosphere. This is one of the things forecasters look at to find the snow the fly through and keep the plane safe. Credit: NASA

    By Ellen Gray /NASA'S WALLOPS FLIGHT FACILITY, VIRGINIA/ The IMPACTS team is what makes the field campaign happen. Over 200 people are contributing to the project from aircraft crews and managers, to support and logistics staff, to the scientists running the instruments and asking the big questions. They include veteran pilots and mission managers, university …

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    Waiting for Good Snow

    NASA's P-3 research aircraft will be flying through clouds during IMPACTS to study snow. Credit: Joe Finlan

    By Ellen Gray / NASA'S WALLOPS FLIGHT FACILITY, VIRGINIA/ Nothing to be done. When your field campaign depends on chasing winter storms you have to wait for the weather to arrive in its own time. For the science team of the Investigation of Microphysics Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms, or IMPACTS, campaign that means carefully …

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