Fieldwork high above California

Students tour NASA’s Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Juan Carlos Gomez, from the University of New Mexico, Las Cruces, looks out over the San Joaquin valley.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Bill Brockett, the chief pilot at NASA‘s DC-8 Flying Laboratory, briefs students on their mission.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Cyndhia Ranatchandirane, 20, a student at Wellesley College, Mass., at left, watches NASA meteorologists at work in the cockpit of the Flying Laboratory.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Samiah Moustafah, 22, a graduate student from the University of Florida, at left, talks with Cyndhia Ranatchandirane, 20, from Wellesley College, Mass., as they wait their turns to take air samples above the San Joaquin valley.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Juan Carlos Gomez, from the University of New Mexico, Las Cruces, at left, collects samples with Steven Walsh, a geology student from the University of Alaska, Anchorage.

---

FOR THE RECORD:
Airborne science program: A July 25 article about a NASA-run science program incorrectly referred to the agency’s DC-8 plane as small. It exceeds the Federal Aviation Administration’s upper limit of 12,500 pounds for small aircraft. The caption with a photo accompanying the article incorrectly identified a student as Steven Walsh. It was Andrew Hart of the University of New Hampshire.

---

  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles TImes)