Look up in the sky! No, really, look. Are those planes supposed to be that low?
But don’t worry, says NASA, because the aircraft you are seeing are conducting research and studying atmospheric data. The planes will take flight over Southern California starting Sunday through Wednesday.
The low-altitude atmospheric flights will be soaring between 1,000 and 10,000 feet, NASA announced in a news release. For comparison, most commercial flights reach between 31,000 to 42,000 feet.
From the ground, the research will look peculiar as the pilots perform vertical spirals, circling over power plants, landfills and urban areas.
NASA did not provide any specifics about the flight path, announcing that the aircraft will buzz over the Los Angeles Basin, Salton Sea and Central Valley.
The flights are part of NASA’s Student Airborne Research Program, or SARP, and will involve two aircraft.
The P-3 Orion aircraft (N426NA) and a King Air B200 aircraft (N46L) will make their way across Southern California, but not in the same flight pattern. The P-3 is a modified four-engine turboprop plane used in various research projects, designed for endurance and range, according to NASA.
The flights will be used to conduct various studies and to sample atmospheric gasses and measure land and water surfaces. The information will be used as part of the student’s research projects, to be presented at the end of the program.
The data gathered in the program applies to ecology, weather, oceanography, soil science, biology and satellite calibration/validation research. The P-3 is typically stationed out of Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and has a science payload that can support a combined 40 hours of science flights on each U.S. coast, according to NASA.
The King Air B200 will fly at the same time as the P-3, but will not perform the same maneuvers.
NASA students will get real-world experience during their eight-week program as they assist in gathering data with scientific instruments on the aircraft, NASA said.
“Despite SARP being a learning experience for both the students and mentors alike, our P-3 is being flown and performing maneuvers in some of [the] most complex and restricted airspace in the country,” Brian Bernth, chief of flight operations at NASA Wallops said in a statement.
The aircraft will also make what looks like missed landings at local airports and buzz by runways to collect air samples along the ground.
In previous SARP flights over Southern California, the aircraft buzzed over Glendale and other locales.
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