NASA will fly low over Houston this month to study the atmosphere and coast as part of its Student Airborne Research Program.
This program, an eight-week internship for undergraduate students seeking to gain research experience, will use a variety of aircraft to map the movement of gases and particles in Earth’s atmosphere, changes to the lowest part of the atmosphere near the coastline and other natural processes, according to a NASA news release.
A WP-3D Orion plane, used as a hurricane hunter by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will fly as low as 1,000 feet. Other planes will be at higher altitudes as their pilots fly scientific instruments in parallel back-and-forth lines.
Planes will be departing Ellington Field between Wednesday and June 13. They will mostly fly over Houston, though some flights will continue over the Gulf of Mexico.
In addition to NOAA’s WP-3D Orion (tail number N43RF), NASA will fly its Gulfstream V (N95NA), Gulfstream C-20A (N802NA) and Gulfstream III (N520NA). It has also contracted a King Air B200 (N46L) for these flights.