Searching the Skies for Ozone Answers

Pat Kilpatrick was working in her garden in Alief when she heard a “kerplunk” on her the patio behind her. She turned to find that a five-foot white sphere had landed behind her.

No, it wasn’t a UFO. It was a weather balloon carrying instruments designed to monitor atmospheric ozone levels. The balloon had been launched from the Academic Quadrangle by Rice researchers as part of the first the first systematic survey of ozone levels in the air above Houston.

Rice undergraduate Scott Hersey prepares to launch a weather balloon as part of the first systematic survey of ozone levels in the air above Houston.

Houston’s smog has spawned jokes on The Tonight Show, innumerable legal disputes, policy debates in Austin, and threats from Washington, but despite the hubbub, the scientific explanation for Houston’s air pollution still contains significant gaps. “Surface observations give us a good idea of the amount of ozone present at ground level,” says Gary Morris, faculty fellow in physics and astronomy and director of the Tropospheric Ozone Pollution Project, which launched the balloons. “However, we don’t have a lot of data on the amount of ozone created above the surface. Without knowing the full magnitude of the problem, we’ll have a difficult time formulating effective solutions.”

The balloons were released daily last summer, and their lightweight instrument packs measured ozone levels from ground level to altitudes of more than 100,000 feet. Morris says he hopes that data from the project will allow scientists and regulators to better predict and prevent ozone problems.

The research was funded by a $40,000 grant from Rice’s Shell Center for Sustainability, with supplemental funding from NASA’s Intercontinental Transport Experiment.

—Jade Boyd