CIRES, CU Boulder and NOAA scientists move fast to understand the impacts of post-fire smoke on indoor and outdoor air quality
When the Marshall Fire tore through Superior and Louisville December 30, 2021, it destroyed more than 1,000 homes and damaged nearly 150 others. The smell of smoke lingers everywhere, outdoors and even inside, especially in homes directly downwind of fires.
Now, scientists from CIRES, CU Boulder and NOAA are installing instruments in surviving houses to understand the effects of smoke on indoor air quality. And they’re driving through neighborhoods in a mobile laboratory—a white NOAA van studded with instruments—to see what the outdoors atmosphere holds.
“The questions driving the work came from the community,” said Joost de Gouw, a CIRES Fellow, professor of Chemistry at CU Boulder, and the lead on the indoor air quality project. “People are worried about the impacts of that smoke on their health.”
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