And now, a collection of pictures that didn’t make it into the rest of the blog:        … Read More

We’ve talked a lot on this blog about measuring Salt Lake City’s PM2.5 pollution, but you may be wondering: What exactly is PM2.5, and what do we mean when we say we are “measuring” the pollution? Let’s start with the observable problem and work backwards to the science: The city is most concerned with its… Read More

The decision about whether or not to fly happens the night before, based largely on weather forecasts for the next day. We are trying to get a good mix of inversion and non-inversion conditions, and both daytime and nighttime flights, but the weather can be challenging, with fog over the lake during inversion conditions and… Read More

After a week and a half of integration, we did our first test flights on January 12th and 13th. Sometimes called “shakedown flights”, they help us identify any issues with the instruments in the air that aren’t apparent on the ground. Test flights also let the ground crew and scientists practice the preflight maneuvers (such… Read More

Salt Lake City, Utah has the reputation of being a pristine mountain city, so it may surprise non-residents to learn that the region has some of the worst wintertime air pollution events in the country. The densely populated region is surrounded on three sides by mountains and experiences cold, snowy winters, leading to frequent temperature… Read More