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If you see planes flying lower than usual over the next week, don’t freak out. Two NASA research planes will be flying across Southern California at lower altitudes than normal.
The flights will begin Sunday and end Wednesday to collect air samples over power plants, landfills and urban areas across the L.A. Basin, Salton Sea and the Central Valley. The planes will also go over some local airports and runway points.
NASA said its P-3 and King Air B200 aircrafts will fly about 1,000 feet above ground. For reference, commercial planes typically fly between 30,000 to 42,000 feet above ground.
The flights are part of NASA’s student airborne research program, an eight-week internship that gives undergraduate students hands-on experience. The flights will also execute special maneuvers like vertical spirals, which looks like a steep descending turn.
“Our P-3 is being flown and performing maneuvers in some of the most complex and restricted airspace in the country,” Brian Bernth, chief of flight operations at NASA Wallops, said in a statement.
The P-3 aircraft has already conducted flights this month over Baltimore and near Philadelphia, according to NASA.
“Tight coordination and crew resource management is needed to ensure that these flights are executed with precision but also safely,” Bernth said.
As part of the flight, students will help collect the air samples that will be used to study air pollutants and greenhouse gases.