NASA is teaming up with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to measure pollution.
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00:00 It may be an unusual sight as a large plane soars only 1000 feet overhead.
00:07 But inside, researchers are on an important mission as they tackle air pollution.
00:12 We can understand the science behind air quality much better than before.
00:17 The project is called AROMA and it studies how air quality has changed over the years
00:22 at a higher detail.
00:23 There's a lot of new sources that we haven't seen in the past.
00:27 From the east coast to the west, NOAA and NASA are focusing on cities with the highest
00:32 air pollution.
00:33 And the Central Valley made it to their 2023 list.
00:36 It's dominated by agricultural emissions, by oil and gas.
00:41 There's a lot of transportation.
00:42 There's also transport into the valley.
00:44 So there's a lot of things that are happening in this area that are somewhat unusual.
00:50 And it's also a valley, so it keeps the pollution in.
00:52 Researchers flew overhead last week in NASA's DC-8 aircraft, equipped with 30 different
00:58 instruments to study air quality and chemistry.
01:01 In the Central Valley specifically, we're looking at compounds like ammonia, like methane.
01:07 Those are often from agriculture.
01:09 Collecting up-to-date data on which pollutants are causing the most impact.
01:13 Volatile chemical products are a large source of pollutants into the atmosphere.
01:19 So that's day-to-day products that we all use.
01:22 So those are personal care products, cleaning products, prints, inks, paints on the wall.
01:29 What's collected now will help researchers improve the future of air quality and how
01:33 it's forecasted.
01:34 We need to improve the science that's needed for future modeling, for future understanding
01:42 of what regulations actually make sense.
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