Nasa aims to boost air monitoring capabilities

Nasa is scheduled to launch a project that is aimed at helping countries gain a better understanding of how to set about air monitoring tests.

The famous US organisation will send experts into the sky on two research airplanes to see if there is a fundamental difference between air quality results taken on the ground, in the air and in space.

Measurements will be taken from the sky and compared with those retrieved from a string of satellites known as the A-Train.

The mission's principal investigator James Crawford believes the Discover-AQ campaign "will fill the knowledge gap that limits our ability to monitor air pollution with satellites".

Initial pilot flights are set to take off around June 27th 2011, with up to 14 experiments taking place from July 1st.

This week, Nasa announced it will stage a conference on June 28th, where details of the final mission of the 30-year space shuttle programme will be revealed ahead of an anticipated launch on July 8th.

Posted by Claire Manning