IRVINE – The University of California, Irvine's sterling reputation in atmospheric science has been burnished by a new federal study in which the campus outperformed leading institutions worldwide in analyzing gases that contribute to air pollution.

Almost 30 laboratories from eight nations were asked to identify and measure gas samples provided by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. The study was meant to check how accurately the labs analyze gas data that is used in computer models of air quality.

NCAR says UCI's Blake- Rowland Research Group did the most accurate analysis, finishing ahead of Harvard and England's University of East Anglia.

The UCI group is led by Don Blake, a key figure in the university's work in atmospheric science, which falls under the general heading of geoscience. During a 10-year period ending in 2001, only two other scientists in the world had their work cited more often by other researchers than Blake. He also is well-known for helping to discover that the dense smog in Mexico City is primarily caused by propane leaks.

Blake made that finding with F. Sherwood Rowland, the UCI chemist who shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry for determining that chlorofluorocarbons damage the ozone layer.

Two other UCI scientists – Mike Prather and Ralph Cicerone, who also serves as chancellor – have been getting headlines for their work in climate-change research. Cicerone's work included serving as chairman of a National Academy of Sciences committee that concluded that global warming is occurring. The committee's report was requested by the Bush administration.