Six-school ‘Vognet’
evaluates Big Island air

Students team up to record data
on air quality, providing a new resource
for observatory scientists

Frankie Stapleton
Special to the Star-Bulletin

WAIMEA, Hawaii -- Scientists on the Big Island are turning to a network of youngsters to do what they haven't been able to do.

Students at six schools -- from Konawaena High and West Hawaii Exploration Academy at Keahole, both on the west side of the island, to Waimea's Hawaii Preparatory Academy to the north, Kau High on the southern end, and Waiakea and Pahoa high schools to the east -- are collecting, recording, analyzing and reporting air samples taken from around the island.

The project is dubbed "Vognet," for Vog Monitoring Network.

Hawaii Prep science teacher Deighton Emmons told his freshman science class that the raw data they are collecting have great value.

"There is a red alarm button going off with planet Earth," he said. "Scientific data is starting to give us feedback on what's going on."

But much more data are needed to complete the picture. And that's where Emmons sees the students playing a big role.

Students represent an untapped resource for collecting scientific data and helping to open society's eyes, Emmons told his charges.

"It's significant. There's meaning to this," he urged his students before sending them outside to take measurements of the air on the Hawaii Prep campus.

Hyuk Kim and Justin Coelho used a Gardner counter to determine the number and size of particles found in a cubic centimeter of air.

Others paired off with sunphotometers to observe and record "optical depth," the amount of sunlight making its way through the atmosphere.

"On a scientific level, we're trying to make some sense as to what air is doing around the Big Isle," Emmons said.

The project began when he and a fellow teacher visited Mauna Loa Observatory with Steve Ryan, an environmental scientist there. The observatory monitors greenhouse gases, atmospheric aerosols, solar radiation, ozone and other meteorological conditions.

Ryan confessed to the teachers that observatory scientists don't have the resources to gather data regularly or over a large enough area for them to be able to draw conclusions about conditions affecting the people living in Hawaii.

That's when the teachers devised a plan to set up an islandwide team of students to collect and record data on a regular basis.

And Vognet was born. It worked for both the scientists and the science teachers.

Ryan was able to retrieve instruments discarded by the federal government and recalibrate them for students to use.

The year-old network of novice scientists and their advisers meets several times throughout the school year to compare notes, analyze the information they have gathered, and practice writing and presenting scientific papers.

Vognet should not be confused with the state's Vog Index Hotline, which recently went into effect. That project, sponsored by the Department of Health, provides a telephone recording of air quality.

Based on a computerized reading of fine airborne particles, it rates the air quality in Kona on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the best and 10 the worst. The recording can be heard by calling 885-7143 after 9:30 a.m. weekdays except holidays.

Emmons said, however, the Department of Health index is "only coming from one site and one elevation" in Kealakekua.

"Our long-range goal would be to let people with asthma and other respiratory problems know what they can expect if they want to drive to Kona or Hilo today," said Emmons.