NASA Invites Media to Event with Scientists, Research Plane in Alaska

NASA invites media to view a research aircraft and interview scientists in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Thursday, Aug. 22, prior to flights of the agency’s Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE), which seeks a better understanding of the sensitivity of northern ecosystems and communities to climate change. Media also will have the opportunity to tour NASA’s C-20A, a […]

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Aug 14, 2024 - 23:00

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NASA Invites Media to Event with Scientists, Research Plane in Alaska

The NASA C-20A (Gulfstream III), shown here in a file photo, is an aircraft that has been structurally modified and instrumented by NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., to serve as a versatile, collaborative research platform for the Earth science community and other researchers.

NASA/Jim Ross

NASA invites media to view a research aircraft and interview scientists in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Thursday, Aug. 22, prior to flights of the agency’s Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE), which seeks a better understanding of the sensitivity of northern ecosystems and communities to climate change.

Media also will have the opportunity to tour NASA’s C-20A, a modified Gulfstream III aircraft from the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, and meet scientists and instrument team members using ABoVE’s radar instrument from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Media are welcome to film researchers on the ground as they communicate with the airborne team.

Weather permitting, the ABoVE media availability will take place from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. AKDT at the Omni Logistics aircraft hangar, 6302 Old Airport Road, Fairbanks. Media interested in participating should contact Dr. Elizabeth Hoy, senior support scientist, at elizabeth.hoy@nasa.gov prior to the event. NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.

view from inside the cockpit of a NASA research aircraft; two people operate numerous controls while a green landscape is visible through the windows

With the help of research aircraft, NASA’s Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) has sought better understanding of the sensitivity of northern ecosystems and communities to climate change for nearly a decade. This cockpit view was captured during a 2022 ABoVE flight.

NASA/Katie Jepson

Climate change in the Arctic and boreal regions is unfolding faster than anywhere else on Earth, resulting in reduced Arctic Sea ice, thawing of permafrost soils, decomposition of long-frozen organic matter, widespread changes to lakes, rivers, coastlines, and alterations of ecosystem structure and function.

Nearly a decade of ABoVE flights has enabled accurate comparisons over time of permafrost, thermokarst, and boreal forests. The 2024 ABoVE field campaign covers Alaska and western Canada. It is coordinated through NASA’s Terrestrial Ecology Program.

For more information on ABoVE, visit:

https://above.nasa.gov

-end-

Rob Garner
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-5687
rob.garner@nasa.gov