Editor’s note: This article was originally published on October 15, 2026, and has been updated to correct the flight location.

NASA to Conduct Low-Level Farm Emissions Survey Flights Near Amarillo, Texas

A NASA Dynamic Aviation A200 aircraft will conduct low-level survey flights over farmland near Amarillo, Texas, from Thursday, October 22, through Monday, November 9, 2026. The flights will measure gaseous and particulate emissions from animal feeding operations.

What NASA’s FarmFlux Mission Will Measure

Agricultural emissions are an important but understudied part of Earth’s land and atmosphere systems. NASA’s FarmFlux mission will deploy more than a dozen sensors to measure ozone, methane, ammonia, particulate matter and other pollutants originating from farmland and livestock farms, as well as their interactions with Earth’s atmosphere.

The mission is co-led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; Colorado State University; and Boston University.

Additional NASA Survey Flights Planned for 2027

Additional low-altitude survey flights by NASA P-3 Orion aircraft are scheduled over farmland in the Midwest and California’s Central Valley during the March–July 2027 growing season.

Learn more about the FarmFlux mission below.

Written by Sharon Teitelbaum

NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley