UC Davis researchers are studying the roadside air quality along the heavily traveled Interstate 80 near Davis, Calif. to improve air-quality modeling and planning techniques used to predict pollution levels adjacent to roadways, where the public can be exposed to carbon monoxide and particulate pollution. Twin 60-foot-tall sampling towers resembling radio broadcast antennae on both sides of I-80 will be monitoring pollution levels, heat flux, temperature, wind speed and direction. Farther back from the road, a white tethered weather balloon 8 feet in diameter and an orange blimp-shaped balloon will be hovering above the treetops to collect additional data. Preliminary results from a similar sampling conducted last February in Sacramento, Calif., found carbon monoxide levels concentrated higher off the ground than experts had previously realized and out of immediate breathing range. The November and December roadside research is a collaboration of the CalTrans Environmental Engineering Program and UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, with help from the campus departments of atmospheric science, and civil and environmental engineering.