From March 1 through May 15, NASA and its partners will carry out the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment (INTEX-B). The experiment is the second of a broader two-phase NASA project to study the transport and evolution of gases and tiny particles, called aerosols, across continents and to assess their impact on regional air quality and climate. During INTEX-B, researchers will pursue the origins of pollution that ultimately finds its way to North America and affects air in the troposphere, the lower part of the atmosphere where we live and breathe.
As part of INTEX-B, NASA will participate in a field study today through March 29 called Megacity Impacts of Regional and Global Environments (MIRAGE), led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, Colo. The results are expected to be applicable to the world's megacities, those with 10 million or more inhabitants. Other participants include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Energy, several U.S. universities, and more than a dozen Mexican partners.
"There has been significant growth in the size and number of megacities like Mexico City, the second largest in the world with 18 million residents," said atmospheric chemist Hanwant Singh, lead mission scientist for INTEX-B at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "These cities generate atmospheric concentrations of pollutants that routinely exceed international standards. We must determine how this pollution from other regions aff
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Contact: Gretchen Cook-Anderson
cookander@comcast.net
301-879-9200
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
9-Mar-2006