NSSL's mobile lab helping to solve natural gas mystery

The Kansas Geological Survey and the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) requested the use of one of NSSL's mobile labs to investigate a natural gas seepage under the city of Hutchinson, KS for nine days in April. Les Showell, NSSL special projects consultant, released a helium balloon carrying a radiosonde each day during the investigation. Information on wind speed and direction, air temperature, air pressure and humidity readings were transmitted to a computer in the mobile lab. At the same time, researchers from NASA's JPL were in a plane carrying an airborne spectrometer making measurements of the infrared signature of methane gas escaping from Kansas Gas Service's Yaggy storage field. Information collected by the project will allow researchers to plot maps of the gas at various places.

Sharing our field facilities through the Field Observing Facilities Support (FOFS) group is part of NSSL's ongoing commitment to observational science. Included under the oversight of FOFS are mobile, deployable, and fixed-site facilities for use by researchers. Individuals can make requests for the use of NSSL's field resources to the FOFS. We will allocate facilities based on a "2-Tier" system. Tier 1 gives priority to highly-organized field projects that require advanced planning. Tier 2 will accommodate projects with a shorter lead time, as the facilities are available. The FOFS advisory board is in the process of forming procedures for the submission and assessment of individual requests. By Dave Rust and Susan Cobb