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On February 3, scientists
boarded a NASA flight headed

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straight first snowstorm the
kind of weather both pilots and

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passengers typically like to
avoid. But this flight was all

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in the name of science,
specifically the IMPACTS mission

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or investigation of microphysics
and precipitation for Atlantic

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Coast threatening snowstorms.
The team is tracking snowstorms

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across the Midwest and eastern
United States with two

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aircrafts, a P3 equipped with
multiple instruments operated by

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scientists and a high altitude
flying ER-2 crewed by one pilot.

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They're looking to better
understand the formation and

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development of winter storms.

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So our goal is to observe and
measure winter storms that

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mostly that happen along the
east coast of the United States.

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On this specific flight we are
flying over a really major

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winter storm that is affecting
the Midwest as well as tomorrow

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is going to go into the Northeast.

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Ultimately, what the impacts
team learns about snowstorms

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will improve meteorological
models and our ability to use

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satellite data to predict how
much snow will fall and where.

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For today's flight it's been
almost unnervingly smooth so far

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at all altitudes. We're dealing
with a lot of crosswinds and

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changing winds, particularly as
we move up and down the track

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across the frontline.

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The inflight team members work
in conjunction with ground

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operations, monitoring, changing
weather conditions and

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coordinating flight paths with
the other aircraft. On this

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flight, the P3 flew a total of
eight hours flying the same

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200-mile stretch of snowstorm
three times each at a different

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elevation in order to capture
data from precipitation as it descends.

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Especially in turbulent cloud,
turbulent storm, ice particles

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that form at certain
temperatures, certain altitudes.

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So right now we're actually
seeing a lot of plate

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aggregates. So we have a lot of
not individual plates that I'm

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seeing but mostly just large
plate aggregates.

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The multi year impacts campaign
is the first comprehensive study

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of snowstorms across the eastern
United States in 30 years.