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SOU prof studies valley's climate, pollution He wants to be able to predict smog By PAUL FATTIG ASHLAND -- Climatologist Greg Jones intends to find out why an L.A.-like smog descends upon the Rogue Valley for a few days each winter and summer. The assistant professor of geography at Southern Oregon University and one of his students have launched an in-depth study of the relationship between climate and pollution in the valley. Last fall, Jones and Chris Rose, a senior majoring in environmental studies, began punching 50 years of local weather data into a computer in an attempt to better understand the role climate plays in creating pollution. "We're trying to make some sense of it," Jones said, then added later, "By understanding the past, we can understand what's going to happen in the future." Being able to predict when a major pollution problem will occur could enable local residents to take steps to avoid it, Jones said. In addition to plugging the large array of local weather information into computers, the three-year project also calls for examining vertical and regional weather. That entails looking at weather patterns up to 10,000 feet over Medford as well as patterns throughout the western United States, he said. The two are working with the state Department of Environmental Quality and the Jackson County Public Health Department on the project. When Jones arrived in the valley two years ago, he noticed that no independent long-term study on the relationship between climate and pollution had ever been done locally. He had conducted climatology studies in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency in urban areas like Philadelphia and Baltimore. Rose, who will make a presentation of some results of the study as part of a senior project in May, describes himself as a "number cruncher" interested in weather patterns. "I'm hoping to leave my mark on the valley," said Rose, who hails from Lakeport, Calif. "Part of my working in environmental studies is in giving something back to the community that I hope will be useful in the future." The study will be useful by giving humans a better understanding of how their actions, coupled with geography and climate, create pollution problems, Jones said. Like the Los Angeles basin and the Anchorage bowl, the Rogue Valley geography has an impact on the local climate, said Jones, who taught at the University of Virginia before coming to Ashland. "The role the climate plays is in inversions," he observed. "That happens whenever the temperature at the surface remains colder than the temperature aloft. Anytime that happens you get pollution being held in." During the winter, vehicle exhausts coupled with smoke from wood heat and industry pollutants create local pollution problems, he said. "We hope to understand how effective emission measures have been in preventing high pollution events in the valley," he said. "But we also want to learn how, over a long period of time, climate has controlled pollution events." Beginning next year, the study will begin looking at "vertical characteristics" of the local weather, he said. "We will look at what happens above Medford for the first 10,000 feet or so," he said. "That will help us determine how inversions occur locally." The third and final part of the research will incorporate the regional influences from the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Alaska. "The climate is dynamic," Jones said. "It's always changing, always complicated. But this information will help us understand more the role it plays locally in affecting pollution." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA