A $1M grant from the Desert Research Institute and Western Regional Climate Center in Las Vegas has been secured to help Clark County residents better prepare for wildfire smoke. The use of NASA satellites will enable researchers to combine existing data from ground observations with data from NASA satellites. The grant was hard-won by a Republican majority in Congress, who voted in favor of the bill. The project aims to improve public health forecasts in the Las Vegas Valley, which ranked 12th for the worst air quality of any metro area in the country last year. The funding comes from an appropriations request carried forward this year by Democrat Congresswoman Dina Titus.