NASA’s DC-8 aircraft deploys to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Aug. 17 after more than six months of preparation and instrument upload.
As part of the Convective Processes Experiment – Aerosols and Winds campaign, CPEX-AW, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center prepared the airborne science laboratory for the 45-day deployment to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands with a series of test flights earlier this month.
The campaign, which is a joint effort between NASA and the European Space Agency, aims to gather critical data about tropical convection processes. Instruments on NASA’s DC-8 will measure winds, aerosols, precipitation, and other conditions that influence convection from the west to east coast of the Atlantic Ocean near the Equator.
NASA’s DC-8, based at the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center Building 703 in Palmdale, California, is flown to collect data for experiments in support of projects serving the world’s scientific community.
