Investigator’s Annual Reports (IAR’s) for Crater Lake National Park

Intercontinental Transport and Chemical Transformation Experiment (ITCT)

 

Report Number: 32739

Reporting Year: 2004

Permit Number: CRLA-2002-SCI-0012

Current Status: Checked in

Date Received: May 23, 2005

Principal Investigator: Dr Steven Cliff, Department of Applied Science, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA

Additional investigator(s): Kevin D. Perry

Park-assigned Study Id. #: CRLA-01010

Permit Expiration Date: Dec 31, 2005

Permit Start Date: Apr 15, 2002

Study Starting Date: Apr 15, 2002

Study Ending Date: Dec 31, 2005

Study Status: Completed

Activity Type: Research

Subject/Discipline: Air Pollution Effects

Objectives: The Intercontinental Transport and Chemical Transformation (ITCT) is a coordinated international research program to address how the transport of chemicals from one continent influence the air quality in other continents, as well as regional and global climate?. Its foci are:

(i) to investigate intercontinental transport of manmade pollution, with an emphasis on ozone, fine particles, and other chemically active “greenhouse” compounds

(ii) to determine the chemical transformation that occurs during this transport.
There is increasing evidence that ozone and fine particles and their precursors, even compounds with reasonably short lifetimes, can be detected at great distances from their sources. The “intercontinental” nature of manmade chemical pollution has been demonstrated in studies over the last decade. ITCT will further the scientific understanding of the consequences – both for air quality and for climate – of this intercontinental transport and transformation. Investigations will initially focus on the Northern Hemisphere, which contains most of the world’s landmasses and population, and where most anthropogenic pollution originates.

ITCT is a newly initiated activity of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) program, which is a Core Project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP). ITCT combines two earlier IGAC activities: the North Atlantic Regional Experiment (NARE) and the East Asian/North Pacific Regional Experiment (APARE). While the bulk of the ground studies will be conducted at Trinidad Head in Northern California, additional sites are needed to fully understand the context of long-range pollution transport at the intensive site. Therefore, additional sampling sites are proposed to better characterize the extent and nature of long-range pollution transport events. Crater Lake NP is one such site proposed for this experiment.

Crater Lake is an excellent site to observe transport across the northern Pacific. It sits atop the Cascade crest with an unobstructed fetch to the Pacific, experiences consistent westerly winds, and the local area is heavily forested, reducing the likelihood of any persistent local dust source. Furthermore, there are few urban or industrial emission sources in the lowlands separating it from the Pacific. Sitting at an elevation of 3078 meters, Crater Lake is well above the persistent surface inversion over the eastern Pacific, and is in the heart of the mid-troposphere “transport layer” in which aerosols are easily carried very long distances. Asian dust has been detected at Crater Lake, most notably in the great “Yellow Sand” event of April 1998, and statistical analysis of the entire IMPROVE record there suggests that Asian transport to Crater Lake is common from February to November. In order to set-up a 3- or 8- DRUM sampler at Crater Lake, we need an outlet for power and a place to set-up the sampler with outside air. The air intake for the sampler would be piped into an existing air intake in the Ratt Hall attic.

Findings and Status: No activity was conducted this report year

For this study, were one or more specimens collected and removed from the park but not destroyed during analyses? No

Funding provided this reporting year by NPS: 0

Funding provided this reporting year by other sources: 0

Full name of college or university: n/a

Annual funding provided by NPS to university or college this reporting year: 0

 

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