This mobile laboratory has been deployed for a very specific reason.
The Shady Fire is burning nearby,
and this team is gathering data that you can only get at night.
NASA Explorers
Episode Two
Follow That Plume!
Fires
Over the next several weeks NASA and NOAA are teaming up
in the field to studying smoke from wildfires and agricultural burning.
Here’s what 24 hours looks like in the life of these fire chasers.
The team’s been keeping a close eye on the Shady Fire,
burning just four hours northeast of the base of operations.
Gowen Field, Idaho Air National Guard
After several days of watching the fire grow, the forecasting team decides
to deploy the mobile laboratory and the NASA and NOAA planes.
The ground crew and pilots are already preparing the plane
by the time the forecasters give their daily briefing.
The more we learn about smoke, the better we'll understand health.
My name is Amber Soja and
my role here is to determine what fires we should target.
Smoke is related to respiratory illness, heart attacks and even death.
For some of our scientists, understanding pollution
has defined the course of their life’s work.
I’m a physical chemist
but I’m also from what 60 Minutes called the most polluted city in America - Anniston, Alabama.
When the opportunity came along to do this type of work,
I really resonated with it.
Dr. Bruce Anderson is the Langley Aerosol Research Group Lead,
and a seasoned veteran when it comes to doing fieldwork in remote places.
By 3pm, both the NASA DC-8 and the Mobile Laboratory are about ready to go.
Bruce and his team begin with a five hour drive to reach the fire.
We’ll catch up with them later.
While the ground crew, pilots and safety techs prepare for what will
likely be six hours of flying through smoke plume after smoke plume,
the scientists ready their instruments to capture data from the notorious Shady Fire.
Thirty minutes into the flight and the team has already reached the fire.
Here’s where the work begins.
These flights are rare opportunities for scientists, so not a moment is wasted.
I think that studying fire and chemistry,
it only comes together when you have a diverse team of scientists
As the sun starts to set, the plume is harder for the pilots to see
and around 10pm, the plane heads home after a successful flight.
Smoke sinks lower to the ground at night and sometimes accumulates in valleys
which is exactly where Bruce and his team are waiting for it.
We'll set out, drive up there, find a place to position the van
then start cranking up instruments. I takes about a half hour to an hour
to get everything running and calibrated.
It's a guaranteed bad night's sleep, but you know, you can tolerate anything for a day or two.
This team of five scientists will be up almost every half hour checking measurements,
replacing filters and at one point,
repositioning the van to capture emissions more effectively.
It’s a long, cold night, but eventually it’s dawn and time to head back to town.
By 7:30, the forecasters have already been awake for at least two hours
selecting which fires the science team should target that day
- including a scheduled return to the Shady Fire.
In about two hours, the plane will be bustling with scientists
preparing their instruments for the day’s flight
and the whole cycle will start all over again.
On the next episode of NASA Explorers
I feel like the work that I do, the knowledge that I’m trying to pull together
Is important for the human race, for our country.
Episode Three: The Carbon Problem