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UMBC's ESI chases wildfires this summer!

The Earth and Space Institute (ESI) will participate in the NASA INjected Smoke and PYRocumulonimbus Experiment (INSPYRE) field campaign in summer 2026.

ESI’s modular four-instrument AirHARP2 Suite will fly on NASA’s high altitude ER-2 from July 27 to September 5 over the western US and Canada. The goal of the campaign is to chase pyrocumulonimbus clouds – thunderstorms driven by wildfire smoke – and study how and why they grow over certain fires, how and why they differ from typical thunderstorms, and their climate impacts.

During the campaign, ESI scientists, engineers, and UMBC students will be following the flights in real time in our Mission Operations Center (Physics 333) – feel free to stop by!

Click the buttons below for more information on…

Tell me more about INSPYRE! Learn about the AirHARP2 Suite!

ESI at URCAD 2026!

ESI student researchers present novel results at UMBC's annual conference.

DroneHARP flies high in Bolivia!

ESI led a novel campaign to underfly PACE HARP2 in May 2025.

ESI and UMBC celebrate 500 days of HARP2 in space!

Our NASA collaborators joined in to toast PACE's continued success.

Pre-launch calibration of HARP2 published in AMT!

Lead author Dr. Noah Sienkiewicz and ESI at NASA (see video).

New article by ESI graduate student Noah Sienkiewicz!

Sienkiewicz simulated and suggested suitable Earth observations for HARP CubeSat on-orbit.

ESI’s first retreat at the Maryland Science Center!

The group reflected on lessons learned while looking to the horizon.

AirHARP2 calibration in-prep for the PACE-PAX campaign!

ESI leads the calibration of the AirHARP2 suite at NASA GSFC.

Viewing the Earth with “Polarized Eyes”

Global HARP2 polarization data from April 19th 2024.

The Science of HARP2’s Cloudbows

Cloud properties are inferred from HARP2 data on 11 March 2024!

New aerosol information in HARP2 data!

Fine mode particles over Caribbean (capture on 21st-March 2024)

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