Air Quality Exhibit

Three green budding flowers from a coneflower plant outside.

How does the atmosphere affect human health? What can plants tell us about ground-level ozone in the air? And what can we do to improve air quality? In the Air Quality exhibit, you can find the answers to these questions and more!

Featured Topics

  • Weather can affect air quality, how ozone forms, and how particulates get into the air!
  • Ozone is a gas that is found in two layers of the atmosphere that surround Earth: the stratosphere (“good” ozone) and the troposphere (“ground-level” or “bad” ozone).
  • The Air Quality Index is used for reporting daily air quality. There are many choices people can make to improve air quality.

Interactives

Discover plants sensitive to ground-level ozone and see what they can tell us about daily ozone levels. Learn about Boulder’s ozone gardens, ozone-sensitive plants, and what we learned from the 2015 ozone gardens. Look for stipples (reddish brown or black dot-like areas on the surface of a plant’s leaves), which are signs of ground-level ozone.;

Touchscreens

Compare and contrast real ozone, particulate matter, and air quality data from two local sites — the Mesa Lab and Rocky Flats.

The Air Quality Exhibit panels.