Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio's newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.
A UTSA researcher says the mix of smoke and Saharan dust over the area shows why local atmospheric monitoring is important.
Alberto Mestas-Nuñez is an associate professor in UTSA’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. He oversees a NASA-funded Pandora Project sensor on top of the Durango Building at UTSA’s downtown campus.
The instrument is part of a nationwide network that measures gases in the atmosphere and helps support satellite observations.
“So it basically has the same instrument that you have in the satellite, but produces high-quality measurements that are used to actually improve the quality of the satellite observations," he told TPR.
Mestas-Nuñez say they are hoping to expand the project even further.
“We are talking to NASA to get an instrument that measures information of particulates, and then, we also have a third project that would also measure carbon gases in the atmosphere. So, I think we are geared towards helping improve the observational base for San Antonio and to contribute better data and better science for air quality," he said.
Mestas-Nuñez says another part of the goal is to turn that scientific data into information the public can use.
“Our research is sort of helping to serve as a bridge between the information that these sensors generate and coming up with products that could be easily accessible by the public."
There are currently two NASA-funded Pandora stations in Texas, the other is located at St. Edwards University in Austin.
“In order to make good decisions regarding air quality, the first thing that we need is to have quality observations, and our project contributed to that. So, the better the observations, the better the science that we can produce and the better the decisions that this science can support.”
