Is Air Pollution Reducing Californias Water Supply?
New project seeks to verify role smog may play in stifling precipitation The Sierra Nevada snowpack that supplies more than 30 million Californians with their water has shown a steady decline over the past century, possibly in part because of the state’s air pollution. But as drought preparations ramp up across the state, researchers are attempting to verify this hypothesis by analyzing the particles in air pollution and precipitation that descend on the Sierra mountain range. A team including scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego took an unprecedented look in late February and early March at a snowstorm and the chemistry that influenced it in the first of several field studies that will take place where Interstate 80 runs through the Sierras. “The exciting thing for us is to be able to make coupled aerosol chemistry and state-of-the-art meteorological measurements which should allow us to be better understand the types of air pollution that are impacting clou
