Scientists take to the sky to study the clouds
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.027354
Telegraph : A team of scientists is preparing to fly across the continental US in the world’s largest airship in order to get a closer look at the composition of Earth’s atmosphere. Skyship 600 is scheduled to launch next week from Florida, and its onboard team will spend the next four weeks sampling the air and visiting such places as the Arizona desert and a bat cave in Texas. The expedition, called Cloud Lab, is to be filmed by the BBC. Among other things, the researchers will study how clouds are formed and what they are made of. The team will also be collecting and analyzing air samples to look for bacteria, fungi, and other organisms that may affect cloud development. As with recent studies of the oceans, the scientists expect to discover new species of microbes that exist only in Earth’s atmosphere.
