Hawaiian Airlines says it’s become the first U.S. airline to join an international research project on climate change and air quality.

The airline said today technicians recently installed equipment on one of its Airbus A330 airplanes that will collect atmospheric air samples from takeoff to landing and record key high-altitude greenhouse gas measurements.

The project is run by an international not-for-profit organization based in Belgium called In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System.

Members include research organizations, universities and weather services from Germany, France and the United Kingdom. The data are used by about 200 universities in Europe, the United States, Japan, South America, India and China.

Scientists expect Hawaiian to produce valuable metrics thanks to its central Pacific location and non-stop flights around the Pacific and U.S.