About OWWL

Ozone Where We Live (OWWL) is a citizen science project evaluating air quality in and around California’s San Joaquin Valley. The project, which will run for three years starting in January, 2025, has two major components: an airborne piece, and a ground-based piece.

The San Joaquin Valley has some of the most polluted air in the country. This region is home to over four million people, who experience disproportionate burdens associated with air pollution. The citizen science sensors will provide an increased understanding of air pollution within the San Joaquin Valley, including better predictions of pollution events for the community.

A main focus of this project is to open scientific research beyond those already in STEM fields, and to connect with the communities that are directly affected by the valley’s poor air quality. The citizen scientists will play a pivotal role in this project, as the data collection relies entirely on volunteer participation.

The OWWL data will be primarily used for two purposes. The first of these is to validate a new data collection product from NASA’s TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) satellite, which looks at ozone. The second purpose is to improve air quality models and predictions for the San Joaquin Valley.

How it Works

The NASA team will recruit, train, and work side-by-side with volunteer scientists to collect data.

Airborne component: The NASA team will provide 10 O₃ (ozone) sensors to citizen scientist pilots, who will provide invaluable ozone data by bringing these sensors onboard for their normal flight plans. The project is most interested in ozone data near the ground, so the majority of data will be sampled from takeoffs and landings. This team is primarily focused on validating the new TEMPO data product.

Ground-based component: The NASA team is building roughly a dozen ground-based sensors to measure atmospheric gases such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide, methane, and formaldehyde, and work with citizen scientists to deploy these throughout the valley. This team is primarily focused on improving air quality models and measurements for the region.

Ways to get involved:

Air Based

We are looking for pilots within the San Joaquin Valley or San Francisco Bay Area who have access to an aircraft who are interested in becoming citizen science pilots. We will provide training to operate a small, low cost ozone and GPS sensor. The sensor was originally designed to fly on weather balloons, it is battery operated, requires no interaction with aircraft systems and weighs one pound. We will provide citizen scientist pilots with training to operate the low-cost sensors, as well as educational and networking opportunities to learn more about ozone, the sensors, and how to interpret the data.

The ozone sampling will be ‘missions of opportunity:’ we will sample ozone wherever the pilot flies, but the pilots do not need to change or add flight plans for this project. After a flight, the pilot will email the data file from the flight to a science team member, who will analyze the data and keep the citizen scientist pilots informed on how their data is contributing to the validation of NASA ozone satellite data products.

Ground Based

We are also looking for community members in Bakersfield, California who are interested in housing a low-cost sensor within their community. Our sensors require an outdoor power outlet, access to outside air, and a WIFI connection. Examples of previous sensor location include: outside of individual homes, libraries, schools, or colleges.

We will provide citizen scientist with training to operate the low-cost sensors, and with educational and networking opportunities to learn more about ozone, the sensors, and how to interpret the data. This ground-based citizen science data will be incorporated into Central California Asthma Collaborative’s SJVAir website and app.

The Process

For any questions, or to express interest in joining the project, email emma.l.yates@nasa.gov.

Additional Partners:

Central California Asthma Collaborative (CCAC) https://cencalasthma.org/

Civil Air Patrol (CAP) https://www.gocivilairpatrol.com/