Above-Ground Air Monitoring Takes Flight This Winter
Utah's Division of Air Quality and partners will examine winter pollution aboard a Twin Otter
Salt Lake City might be nestled into the beautiful Wasatch Mountains but the air there, especially in winter, is far from clean. In fact, the city suffers from some of the worst wintertime air pollution in the country. To better understand this phenomenon, Utah's Division of Air Quality (DAQ) and its federal partners have set up an air monitoring station aboard an aircraft to collect data during winter conditions, especially inversions.
The study, "Utah Winter Fine Particulate Study" began this week and will be one of the most significant air quality studies in Utah. It involves the NOAA specially-equipped aircraft known as the Twin Otter, along with multiple ground-based observation sites. The aircraft will fly over the Cache, Salt Lake, and Utah Valleys from now until February 14, 2017, to survey the chemical conditions responsible for the formation of particulate pollution.
CIRES and NOAA researchers are partnering with the DAQ and you can follow them via their blog, "Air Quality in Salt Lake City: A Twin Otter Aircraft Study."