NASA planes fly over Baltimore power plants and landfills measuring air pollution, greenhouse gases

Planes are circling over power plants, landfills and airports around Baltimore collecting data for NASA on air pollutants and greenhouse gases.

Researchers and students will fly multiple times until Wednesday, June 26, according to a news release from NASA.

Instruments on the aircraft will be measuring carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde and ozone. Researchers will be comparing their measurements with those from an instrument on a commercial satellite last year that provided hourly daytime measurements of air pollution across North America, according to the release.

A King Air B200 aircraft from NASA contractor Dynamic Aviation and a NASA P-3 will fly over the same locations collecting different measurements, according to the release. The aircraft will conduct maneuvers including vertical spirals between 1,000 and 10,000 feet and low-level flights over airport runways to collect samples close to the surface.

"The goal is that this data we collect will feed into policy decisions that affect air quality and climate in the region," NASA research scientist Glenn Wolfe said in the release.

Researchers and students are conducting similar studies in Philadelphia, Virginia and California.