By Patricia Craig January 12, 2015

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State will lead a five-year, $30 million mission to improve quantification of present-day carbon-related greenhouse gas sources and sinks. An improved understanding of these gases will advance our ability to predict and manage future climate change.

"Atmospheric Carbon and Transport-America" is one of five airborne studies funded by NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder Program to improve our understanding of the Earth system and our ability to predict future changes.

In 2015, NASA aircraft will begin five studies around the world to investigate how global air pollution, climate forcing, warming ocean waters and fires in Africa affect our climate. The five studies were competitively selected as part of NASA's Earth Venture-class missions and are the second series of NASA's Earth Venture suborbital investigations.

,is the principal investigator on the Penn State project, which will measure atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases and atmospheric properties within weather systems across the eastern United States.