{"id":174,"date":"2013-08-22T12:47:57","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T16:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/134.74.15.28\/?p=174"},"modified":"2015-06-01T14:39:18","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T18:39:18","slug":"johnny-luo-serving-as-a-nasa-mission-team-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crest.cuny.edu\/?p=174","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Luo Serving as a NASA Mission Team Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/134.74.15.28\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/jjluo.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-medium wp-image-175 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/134.74.15.28\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/jjluo-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"jjluo\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/crest.cuny.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/jjluo-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/crest.cuny.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/jjluo.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Dr. Z. Johnny Luo, an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and NOAA CREST Institute at The City College of New York, is one of 12 lead scientists on a NASA airborne mission to study how convective clouds help process and transport air pollutants, including those from wildfires. The mission, involving two aircraft that are crisscrossing the southwestern United States, began August 10. A NASA media day event for the mission will be held Wednesday, August 21 in Houston.<\/p>\n<p>More than 200 scientists plus ground support personnel are involved in the mission. As a team leader, Professor Luo is charged with implementing the mission\u2019s scientific goals. At 39, he is the youngest team leader chosen by NASA through an open competition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe scientists still don\u2019t fully understand how convective clouds transport pollutants from near the Earth\u2019s surface to the atmosphere,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are critical because without a clear understanding of these transport processes we cannot effectively predict how air quality will change in a changing climate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know we are headed toward a warmer climate, but we also want to know whether air quality will deteriorate or improve and how clouds will play a role in changing air quality. It is a difficult question to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The two principal aircraft assigned to the mission are a Lockheed ER-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane and a converted Douglas DC-8 passenger airliner. Between them, the two airplanes have been outfitted with more than 46 instruments that will collect data on cloud microphysics, aerosols, trace gas pollutants and atmospheric states.<\/p>\n<p>As they cover their territory, the two aircraft are flying beneath satellites that are gathering similar data from a much higher altitude. However, the aircraft are collecting data with much finer resolution near or inside the clouds. \u201cThe satellites are our \u2018MRI\u2019 doing remote sensing from space while planes are our \u2018surgical knife\u2019 collecting \u2018biopsy samples\u2019 on spot,\u201d Professor Luo explained. \u201cWe need both of them to make an accurate \u2018diagnosis\u2019 of the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"external-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ccny.cuny.edu\/news\/luo-nasa-mission.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">Click Here for More Information<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Z. Johnny Luo, an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and NOAA CREST Institute at The City College of New York, is one of 12 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_elementor_edit_mode":"","_elementor_template_type":"","_elementor_data":"","_elementor_page_settings":null},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crest.cuny.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crest.cuny.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crest.cuny.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crest.cuny.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crest.cuny.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crest.cuny.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176,"href":"https:\/\/crest.cuny.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions\/176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crest.cuny.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crest.cuny.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crest.cuny.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}