U.S. scientists have deployed a modified Korean War-era bomber to measure trace gases in the stratosphere that reflect sunlight.
U.S. scientists have deployed a modified Korean War-era bomber to measure trace gases in the stratosphere that reflect sunlight. The goal of the project: to better understand how humans might use such gases to cool an overheated planet.
“Processes in the stratosphere can change climate at the Earth’s surface,” Karen Rosenlof, a NOAA climate scientist, said in a statement. “Satellites give us important information, but not everything we need to know.”
In 2020, Congress directed NOAA to research ways to cool the Earth. The new undertaking, dubbed the SABRE program, is part of that effort. The WB-57 aircraft, a converted B-57 bomber, is now operating out of Fairbanks, Alaska, carrying 17 sampling instruments supplied by NOAA, NASA, Harvard, and the University of Vienna. The plane will measure trace gases in the Arctic stratosphere before undertaking missions in the tropics in 2024 and the Southern Hemisphere in 2025.
Read more at: Yale Environment 360
A WB-57 aircraft. (Photo Credit: Chelsea Thompson/NOAA)
