TAIPEI (TVBS News) — NASA's two research aircraft arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday (March 27) for its final mission of the year, according to the Ministry of Environment.
The research aircraft passed through Hengchun Airport and is expected to conduct intensive observations for an uninterrupted 48 hours.
The ministry is collaborating with NASA on the "Seven SouthEast Asian Studies Mission," a research focused on air quality in Kaohsiung and Pingtung.
The ministry noted that NASA's previous mission, which was conducted on March 13, identified the leading causes of the air quality's reaching orange alert to red warning levels in the Kaohsiung and Pingtung areas. These included the transmission of pollutants from abroad, such as the Chinese haze and ozone and fine suspended particles (PM2.5) produced by biomass burning in Southeast Asia. The accumulation of local pollution in the central and southern regions also contributed to the multiple pollution events.