More exciting news from the School of Natural Sciences! They will be acquiring a Thermo Electron Corporation, EPA standard, Model 49i ozone monitor and a weather station (matching the one acquired for the roof of JBWS) for use at the Wild Basin Creative Research Station. Capital Area Council of Governments (CapCOG) will integrate the data gathered by these devices into the State of Texas data stream (as with the data from JBWS). The installation of these instruments as well as the ones at JBWS will be paid for by a grant from CapCOG.
These stations fill in a gap in the current Austin area ozone-monitoring network which presently contains no official stations south of the river, north of Ben White, West of I-35, and east of MoPac. There also are no monitors in the vicinity of Wild Basin. The prevailing wind direction (SE) will allow researchers, using data from these two stations, to examine the influences of Austin sources on ozone as it enters the main core of the urban area. A long-term record of ozone at Wild Basin will allow them to examine the influence of air quality on plant health, insect populations, and bird and animal populations.