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Look down, not up

NASA’s latest Texas fieldwork is closer to farmland than orbit. An A200 aircraft is scheduled to make low-altitude research flights near Amarillo from October 22 through November 9, measuring emissions from animal-feeding operations.

What the instruments collect

The FarmFlux mission uses more than a dozen sensors to study gases and particles associated with agriculture. NASA lists methane, ammonia and ozone among the substances being measured, along with particulates and other pollutants.

The location correction matters

The agency updated its announcement to correct where the flights would take place. The revised notice specifies the Amarillo area. That is the location readers should use when comparing the announcement with older versions circulating online.

The scientific gap below the flight path

NASA C-20A Gulfstream III research aircraft flying over desert terrain
A NASA C-20A research aircraft over the Dryden Flight Research Center in April 2003. Archival context for airborne research; not the FarmFlux flight described in this article.Photo: NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center / NASA/Jim Ross · Source · Public domain

FarmFlux’s mission description explains the measurement problem. Rural ground-monitoring networks are sparse, while emissions change with farming practices, weather, soil moisture and crop cover. Aircraft can sample what rises from a field or livestock operation and follow it downwind as gases and particles travel and react. Researchers are especially interested in nitrogen cycling between farms and the atmosphere. The program pairs an A200 focused on livestock with a P-3 focused on crops. NASA says the observations will feed air-quality models used for short-term forecasts and longer-term assessments of improvement strategies. The flights therefore seek more than an emissions total: they examine where the material goes and what happens next.

Another campaign follows

NASA says additional P-3 Orion research flights are planned for the March-to-July 2027 growing season in the Midwest and California’s Central Valley. Those flights will focus on cropland, extending the project beyond this autumn’s livestock measurements.

Sources & original reportingSource publication or schedule date: October 20, 2026; location corrected from October 15 announcementNASA — Texas FarmFlux flight notice ↗NASA Science — FarmFlux objectives ↗

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Prepared with AI assistance. Source-based reporting checked on October 23, 2026. This article does not update automatically. Read our editorial standards.