NASA's new COral Reef Airborne Laboratory, or CORAL, will kick off its data-gathering phase with an operational readiness test on Oahu, Hawaii, from June 6 to 16. Over the next year, CORAL will visit representative reefs from Hawaii to Australia to collect detailed measurements needed for a better fundamental understanding of these valuable ecosystems. Here are a few of the many things that make CORAL an exciting science investigation.
NASA plans to take a new and improved approach to studying coral reefs this year, with the launch of a three-year field expedition conducted with advanced instruments to survey the world's reefs in far greater detail than ever before.
NASA's new Coral Reef Airborne Laboratory (CORAL), a three-year field study of Earth’s valuable coral reef ecosystems, is mounting an operations readiness test in Kane‘ohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaii, in early June. Media are invited to meet the scientists, learn about the mission and see CORAL research equipment on June 9, from noon to 4 p.m. HST at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) on Moku o Loʻe (Coconut) Island in Kane‘ohe Bay.
NASA’s high-tech endeavors normally look outward. But given the existential threat facing the world’s coral reefs, the space agency has decided to focus its efforts closer to home — and the result may be game changing.
