NASA and EPA Team Up for Air Monitoring

Full feature story

Transcript (1:41 min):

Narrator:
NASA and the US EPA have teamed up to bring advanced air monitoring technology to the California San Joaquin Valley by using a specially outfitted plane.  The hope is in to better understand how air pollution is formed.

The valley is surrounded by mountains on three sides, so air pollution is easily trapped. The recent population boom, busy highways, and other sources of pollution have combined with the natural topography to create some of the highest concentrations of fine particulate pollution in the country.

EPA's Rebecca Rosen:
The NASA plane that flew in the valley last week was equipped with an advanced monitoring instrument called a High Spectral Resolution Lidar
(HSRL).  This Instrument allows a NASA scientist to fire a laser out of the bottom of the plane and measure the vertical distribution of aerosols in the valley, which is helpful for understanding the formation and transport of aerosols and also allows them to infer the type of particles that are present such as urban pollution or desert dust.

Narrator:
We hope to use these measurements to determine how much of those aerosols are present in the air that we breathe.  The data gathered during the flights will help us better understand the underlying science of particulate matter pollution and improve forecasts of air quality.

EPA's Niloufar Glosson:
Improving San Joaquin’s air quality is a top priority for the US EPA.  We have been working with our state and local counterparts on many different levels.  And what is clear is everyone’s effort is needed to improve the air quality for the 3.3 million residents of the valley.