Front Range air quality: Impacts on you and your Colorado playground

Poor air quality — air pollution — can pose a major risk to the health of people and other living things. In the summer of 2014, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and partner organizations launched a major field campaign called FRAPPÉ — the Front Range Air Pollution and Photochemistry Experiment. Using research aircraft, mobile laboratories, balloon-mounted sensors, and complex computer simulations, FRAPPÉ measured air pollution across the Front Range of Colorado and tracked the origins of summertime ozone, an invisible but harmful pollutant that can irritate or damage lungs, reduce crop yields, and harm forests. Find out what’s in the air we breathe, how far it travels, and what we know and don’t know about the origins of Front Range pollution. We also discuss what researchers are doing to advance scientific understanding in support of informed decision making to limit pollutant emissions and exposure.