Researchers searching for Houston's ozone fix

06:27 PM CDT on Monday, July 19, 2004

By Nancy Holland / 11 News

Click to watch video

Add a bit of Houston's dirty air to all this heat, and you have the recipe for an ozone alert.

KHOU-TV Researchers at Rice are finding new ways to measure the ozone levels across the Houston area.

On Monday, a "level orange" ozone alert was issued for Harris, Brazoria and Galveston counties.

Orange means the air is unhealthy for children, the elderly or anyone with respiratory problems.

But researchers are taking steps to learn more about the problem in order to clean things up. In fact, Dr. Gary Morris will send instruments aloft to measure ozone perhaps thousands of feet in the air.

What we now know of ozone comes from noise level monitoring stations. So far this year in Houston, 13 days have been high in ozone including a "purple" day last week, potentially dangerous to anyone outside.

And on bad days Houston shares its ozone for miles.

Dr. Morris says to make it better he needs to look up.

"Weather will cause air currents that will move air from the surface up above the surface and then back down again. So, ozone that gets generated above the surface can get mixed back down to the surface where you are," says Morris.

Know more and you can clean up more he adds. Houston is under federal order to do that within six years.

The data may also be used to develop the model that actually measures whether Houston is able to meet its clean air goals.

What Dr. Morris is finding may affect more than air quality.

"One of the decisions that Toyota for example made to not locate a major manufacturing facility here in Houston was their concern over our Clean Air Act compliance," says Chris Holmes from the Shell Center for Sustainability.

Both physically and economically the data returned by a weather balloon could help the city breath easier.