Other Seminars of Interest

As a part of a multi-agency response to the Deepwater Horizon spill, Boulder Colorado scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), conducted two aircraft flights to characterize the resulting air pollution in the Gulf of Mexico.

During May, one of NOAA WP-3D aircraft, equipped with an extensive suite of in-situ chemical sensors, was deployed in California as part of a long-planned, large, multi-agency field study of climate change and air quality issues. To conduct flights over the oil spill, the aircraft was temporarily deployed to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, from where it was flown within and above the marine boundary layer over the Gulf of Mexico on 8 and 10 June 2010. The flights targeted the area in the vicinity of and downwind of the spill site.

This work supports NOAA's air quality modeling associated with the BP oil spill, and complements on-going air monitoring on ships in the vicinity of the oil spill as well as EPA's air quality surveillance airplane mission. Evaluation of the data from the NOAA flights assists the multi-agency response by providing a detailed and independent set of air quality data, using highly sensitive and research-grade instruments, for informing consideration of air quality risks for workers at sea and the public ashore.