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UAVs Will Study Californian Smog

Posted by timothy on from the with-their-little-UN-logos dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "The California Energy Commission is funding a research effort named CAPPS, short for California AUAV Air Pollution Profiling Study. CAPPS will use autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (AUAVs) to gather meteorological data as the aircraft fly through clouds over Southern California. The goal is to study smog and its consequences as well as better understand the sources of air pollution. The first flights started in April 2008 and data collection will continue until January 2009. But read more for additional references and photos of these autonomous unmanned aircraft."

5 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Smog is way down, why is this needed? by Kohath · · Score: 0, Troll

    Air pollution has been largely eliminated in the US. Our air has been getting cleaner for 40-50 years now and is now extremely clean, despite what you might hear from activist groups and the news media.

    Here's a report on the subject.

    If UAVs are needed, it's because we've surpassed the point where the air is adequately clean and we need to take ridiculous measures to try to attain perfection. Perfectly clean air is not needed, is not possible, and is certainly not cost-effective for the public.

    1. Re:Smog is way down, why is this needed? by Kohath · · Score: 0, Troll

      No, I don't live in LA. If the problem isn't "solved" (or almost solved) in LA, then LA is an outlier. Almost all of the cities in the rest of the US have clean air.

    2. Re:Smog is way down, why is this needed? by Kohath · · Score: 0, Troll

      You are right about LA and CA.

      But all the cites are much, much cleaner than any time in the last 40-50 years. Especially LA. Efforts to clean up emissions have succeeded.

    3. Re:Smog is way down, why is this needed? by Kohath · · Score: 0, Troll

      ...t fly into an LA area airport on many days, and your will actually descend through a yellowish-brown layer... The actual number of days in "many days" is in the 20-30 range now. That's down from 200+ days in the past.

      Paying for illnesses that are caused or aggravated by smog isn't cost effective either, both in terms of economic and human impact. Asthma is negatively correlated with air pollution. See this report, page 10.
  2. The first flights started in April 2008 by sm62704 · · Score: 1, Troll

    Good ol' slashdot, always first with the scoop! What month is it again?

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest