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SALT LAKE CITY -- The air in Utah was extremely Wednesday, but it was also mostly clean -- a stark contrast to the thick inversion just a few days ago.
The Wasatch Front has seen 16 red air days and nine yellow air days this winter. Researchers at the University of Utah are finishing up a study that should give us more advance warning before the air turns bad.
For the past two months, the researchers sent weather balloons into the sky, gathering data on how inversions form. Their preliminary findings are different than what previous research has shown.
We will basically improve the lead time for the forecast of how strong the inversion is going to be, and that will better influence policy makers.
–Erik Crosman
#Crosman_q
"A lot of what we've seen is just a whole bunch of warm air coming around the mountain top level and capping the valleys, which is a little different than the previous studies we've seen," said Neil Lareau, a graduate research assistant at the U.
The goal of the study is to pinpoint in advance when an inversion will form and how severe it may be.
"We will basically improve the lead time for the forecast of how strong the inversion is going to be, and that will better influence policy makers on: Is this really an event where we need people to cut back on their driving?" explained Erik Crosman, also a graduate research assistant at the U.
Researchers hope their work will benefit cities around the world, especially major areas where pollution is high and the air is unhealthy. Utah is a good place for the study, they say.
"Anywhere from here to out to Reno, and every valley across Nevada and across all of Utah, you are going to see the same inversion form," Lareau said. "They are just going to be a lot dirtier where a lot of people live, and so it's an issue with populated areas."
While the study will better help predict inversions, researchers say it's up to all of us to change our habits. That's because anything we put into the air during an inversion is going to be trapped until it clears.
"There's a lot more than just the meteorology," Crosman said, "it's the people that put the pollution in the atmosphere."
The inversion season technically ends at the end of the month, but Utah did not have any red days in the month of February in 2010.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
