by Rod Hughes
The first flights in the NASA mission TC-4 Wednesday to measure atmospheric conditions in the tropics was termed “successful.” Based out of San Jose’s Juan Santamaría International Airport, the flights carried both NASA and Costa Rican scientists.
The TC-4 mission uses two high-altitude jets, a high-flying ER-2 and a DC-8 with 40 scientists aboard. The instrument-laden ER-2 returned to base early while the DC-8, less susceptible to lightning damage, continued playing tag with the thunder storms while gathering research data.
The purpose is to gather data about the interaction of clouds and climate. Another such mission was scheduled for today.
Meanwhile, NASA and Costa Rican scientists have been using an older, much cheaper, technique for the past four years to check out global warming—weather balloons. The instruments on the balloons measure temperature, wind velocity, amounts of water vapor and ozone in the atmosphere to better understand climate change and to make improved climatic models. The program, Ticosonde, has not yet released the results of its research.