Jarnot assists with SARP project

AirUCI faculty Don Blake is a founding member of SARP, the NASA Student Airborne Research Program.  In fact, SARP is based in the Rowland/Blake research group.  Every summer since 2009, SARP has brought about 30 undergraduate STEM students from across the United States to UCI as interns with NASA's Earth Science research.  This year, with COVID-19 restrictions, SARP will introduce a new at-home data collection project for the interns as well as the analysis of previously collected aircraft, ground, and satellite data.
 
To provide the 28 SARP interns of 2020 with a hands-on research experience in atmospheric science, as well as to better understand the unique environmental impacts of the pandemic, SARP leadership designed an at-home air sampling project to take advantage of the geographic distribution of interns across the United States. The Rowland/Blake lab provided nearly 1,000 air canisters to send to SARP interns at home.  Canisters were also sent to several SARP mentors, faculty and NASA scientists. 
 
SARP alumnus and UC Irvine graduate student Alex Jarnot cleaned and prepared the canisters, then they were sent out.  SARP participants each received 24 evacuated canisters that they are currently using to take air samples of their local environments, allowing them to track the changes in emissions over the coming months as human and industrial activity ramps up.    Read the article