NASA Aircraft to Make Low-Altitude Research Flights Over Colorado

Agricultural emissions are an important but understudied part of Earth's land and atmosphere systems. NASA's FarmFlux mission is designed to address that gap by deploying more than a dozen sensors to measure ozone, methane, ammonia, particulates, and other pollutants rising from agricultural lands and animal farms, as well as how those emissions interact with Earth's atmosphere. The mission is jointly led by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; Colorado State University; and Boston University.

The Colorado deployment is the first series of flights for FarmFlux, using NASA aircraft for low-altitude research flights over the state. Additional low-altitude research flights are scheduled over farmland in Amarillo, Texas, from late October to early November.

For the March to July 2027 growing season, research flights with a NASA P-3 Orion aircraft are scheduled over the Midwest and California's Central Valley, with a focus on croplands. The item was dated Sept. 23, 2026, and was written by Sharon Teitelbaum of NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley, with Gianine Figliozzi also credited; more information about FarmFlux is available at https://espo.nasa.gov/farmflux.