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- A widely shared video on social media questions the seemingly strange flight path of a NASA aircraft operating in the Western Cape.
- It is widely suggested in the comments the aircraft is altering weather patterns in the region, but this is not true.
- It is collecting data for a pioneering biodiversity project.
- For more stories, visit the Tech and Trends homepage.
A widely circulated video misleadingly suggests there is something untoward with the flight pattern of a National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) aircraft operating in the Western Cape.
The video, which is overlaid with eerie music and captioned "what is NASA doing in South Africa flying in circle patterns", shows the flight path of an aircraft travelling in circles and tightly bunched lines.
The path of the NASA520 aircraft was tracked on a platform called Flightradar24.
The video has been viewed more than 450 000 times by the time of publication and is littered with hundreds of comments about cloud seeding, a form of weather modification that increases the amount of precipitation in an area.
@christian_grobler What is #nasa doing in #southafrica #flying in #circle paterns. #capetown #george #mosselbay #gardeneoute #africa ? Suspense, horror, piano and music box - takaya
The aircraft is not involved with the modification of the Cape's weather system.
NASA has deployed two aircraft in the Greater Cape Floristic region to collect data for a unique biodiversity study in the area.
Its Gulfstream 3 and Gulfstream 5 planes have been equipped with research instruments and will be flying in different regions of interest in the Cape until the end of the year.
News24 has seen the flight paths for the BioScape project which match the type of patterns shown in the TikTok video.
The South African lead scientist for the BioSCape project, Dr Jasper Slingsby, who is also a lecturer at the University of Cape Town's biological sciences department, explained the purpose of the project to News24 when it was launched in mid-October.
"BioSCape is a unique and exciting project that will help reveal new insights about the biodiversity of one of the most diverse regions on earth and provide new tools for mapping and monitoring it," he said.
READ MORE | NASA aircraft take to Cape skies for unique biodiversity project
Slingsby added data from the NASA planes would be combined with data from earth observation satellites and ground observations to provide a unique dataset for the research.
The aircraft will collect data that covers a wide wavelength range and are equipped with four different data collection instruments.
They make use of four different instruments to collect data.
The dataset gathered will be unique in size, scope, and level of detail for this type of project.
The project has more than 50 institutional partners, including many universities in the US and South Africa.
More than 150 scientists will contribute to the research.
The data collection phase of the project will largely be completed by the end of the year.
