Sampling San Diego's Smoggy Skies

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published May 7, 2008 at 7:31 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Scientists at UC-San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography are using an unmanned aircraft to sample Southern California's air. They're looking to find out what's in our smog and where it comes f

Sampling San Diego's Smoggy Skies

(Photo: Technicians prepare an autonomous unmanned aircraft for launch at Edwards Air Force Base. Scripps Institution of Oceanograph, UC San Diego )

Scientists at UC-San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography are using an unmanned aircraft to sample Southern California's air. They're looking to find out what's in our smog and where it comes from. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

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The Scripps team hopes to find out how much of the air pollution in Southern California comes from Asia, Mexico and areas north of the state.

Scripps Atmospheric and Climate Sciences Professor V. Ramanathan says the early data shows that a major cause of global warming is in our air.

Ramanathan: Even the rough data is already showing we are finding what we suspected - large amount of black carbon. It's soot but we call it black carbon because it absorbs sunlight.

He says black carbon and other pollutants transported from other countries mixes with falling snow here and causes a faster snowmelt.

Ramanthan says that's because the carbon speeds the warming of the snow.

He also says the research makes clear how how air pollution from one continent affects another one halfway around the world.

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Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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