NASA's Student Airborne Research Program (SARP, https://baeri.org/sarp) was established in 2009, and has been running annually in California ever since, for selected students to gain hands-on research experience in multiple aspects of field campaigns. As an intern of SARP 2009 who also have been using observations and model data from various field campaigns during the past 15 years, I am glad that I participated in the inaugural edition of SARP-East in Virginia in summer 2023.
I was part of the ComRAD team led by Alicia Joseph of NASA Goddard based in Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)'s Rice Rivers Center during the week of June 12, 2023. Measurements by radar and radiometer, which are installed on a 19 m long truck, were taken, when aircraft flew over the area with the SLAP instrument onboard and dozens of in situ soil samples were collected on the ground using probes.
Ground-based measurements of soil moisture and surface roughness were made at cornfields in the Curles Neck Farm nearby. The wetland complex at VCU offers fantastic opportunities for sampling greenhouse gas fluxes and canoeing.
The strong impact of Canadian wildfires on northeastern US air quality during this period is clearly seen from ground based and balloon borne measurements (e.g., from trailer, ozonesondes) made at VCU and US EPA monitoring stations. These data reminded me of the times when we used three-dimensional air pollutant measurements during NASA field campaigns to study the impact of Asian pollutants on summertime western US air quality (e.g., Huang et al., 2010). Compared to transported Asian pollutants, these wildfire plumes come from also large, but nearby sources, which are less diluted and very concerning.
The media also visited us. I have found NPR and Daily Iowan articles on SARP 2009 pleasant to read. I look forward to seeing the articles introducing SARP-East soon.