MEDIA ADVISORY: Trans-Pacific Dust Trackers To Chat Live with Reporters Online

What: Scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) will be available for a live, online chat with reporters on Tuesday, May 15. The scientists will discuss preliminary findings from the Pacific Dust Experiment (PACDEX), a campaign to understand the impacts of huge plumes of dust and pollutants that travel from Asia to North America, especially during spring months. The researchers will communicate with reporters during in the second major research flight of the mission over the Pacific Ocean.

When: Tuesday, May 15. NCAR will present the online chat from 1 to 2 p.m. Pacific Time, (4 to 5 p.m. Eastern Time) during a scheduled PACDEX research flight. Reporters who want to take part are invited to email questions to pacdexchat@ucar.edu up to 30 minutes before the chat. 

(NOTE: If the Gulfstream-V flight is delayed due to weather or other reasons and the chat needs to be rescheduled, Scripps Oceanography will send out a follow-up advisory.)

Where: Researchers will field questions in-flight over the Pacific Ocean and from facilities at the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport near Boulder, Colo. where PACDEX flights originate.

Who: Co-principal investigators V. Ramanathan of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, monitoring data from the ground, and Jeff Stith of NCAR, taking observations onboard a specially outfitted Gulfstream-V aircraft, will take part in the chat.

Background: The PACDEX project examines the impact of massive plumes of dust and pollutants that blow from Asia to North America. The plumes can alter global temperatures, regional precipitation patterns, and the amount of sunlight that reaches Earth. Scientists are using the nation's newest and most capable aircraft for environmental research, a modified Gulfstream-V, to fly through the plumes.