Testing Smoke

As wildfires burn bigger and hotter across the US, what’s happening to air quality? Smoke from fires in Oregon recently traveled thousands of miles all the way to New York City, creating the worst air conditions the city has seen in 15 years. A team of scientists from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA flew planes right into wildfire smoke plumes to get a better handle on this growing form of air pollution. Carsten Warneke is a NOAA mission scientist working on this project. He shared details about his work on Top of Mind back in 2019—work that’s becoming only more relevant. (Originally aired November 19th, 2019)