Student Airborne Research Program Begins in Houston

Thunderclouds roll across the sky and raindrops fall sporadically, yet at 81 percent humidity they barely register as 48 undergraduate students gather in Houston for a hands-on research experience. The Student Airborne Research Program is an eight-week internship usually held on the East and West coasts; this year SARP East and SARP West have come together for the first portion of the session.

Day one of data collection sets the stage for the weeks of experiments and analysis ahead. “It’s really special for the students to see this level of science, planning, and operations in action,” said Dan Sousa, SARP mentor and a professor at San Diego State University.

Over the next two weeks students will split into groups focused on hydrology, atmosphere, land and ocean. They will take water, soil and atmospheric samples on the ground, fly in research aircraft equipped with instruments to make atmospheric measurements, and bring their data back to the classroom to learn from experts.

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