Research Project

I think I've finally got my research project! Georgia Murray of the Appalachian Mountain Club has suggested that I help her run back trajectories on the PM 2.5 data which was measured on the summit, at Lakes of the Clouds, and down the road from the auto road base at Camp Dodge. I'll be using the Hy-SPLIT (Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) model, which is available online through the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory. This is very cool because it's related to what I'll be studying this fall, atmospheric chem. I just found out in the past couple weeks that I've been accepted to both Oregon State and Portland State Universities. It's not going to be an easy choice! But here's a start on my academics... This is the abstract from the current version of the paper that Georgia's writing on the fine particulate matter data.

A 16-year comparison of fine particle and aerosol strong acidity at the interface zone (1,540 m) and within (452 m) the planetary boundary layer of the Great Gulf and Presidential-Dry River Class I Wildernesses on the Presidential Range, New Hampshire USA

Georgia Lee Murray, M.S., Appalachian Mountain Club; Kenneth Kimball, PhD; L. Bruce Hill, PhD; George A Allen, PhD; Jack M Wolfson, PhD; Alex Pszenny, PhD; Thomas Seidel, BS; Bruce G Doddridge, PhD

Abstract: Mount Washington, NH in the White Mountain National Forest, is flanked to the north-northeast and south by two Class I Wilderness areas, the Great Gulf and Presidential Range-Dry River Wildernesses, respectively. The Clean Air Act protects Class I area natural resource values from air pollution. Aerosol sulfate, a fine particulate component that is often transported long distances, is a known contributor to visibility degradation and acidic deposition. We examined summertime fine particulate aerosol mass and sulfate, strong acidity and ammonium concentrations from 1988 to 2004 on Mount Washington at two elevations, 452 and 1,540 meters (msl). The former site is within, and the latter at the interface of, the planetary boundary layer. Comparisons of sampling interval durations (10 and 24 hours), site vs. site, and
different sampling methods are made. We also examine the extent to which aerosol sulfate is neutralized. Ten hour (daytime) compared to 24 hour samples have higher mass and aerosol sulfate concentrations, however paired samples are well correlated. Fine mass concentrations compared between the 452 m and 1,540 m sites (standard temperature and pressure corrected) show a weak positive linear relationship with the later being approximately 34% lower. We attribute the lack of a strong correlation to the facts that the 1,540 m site is commonly at the interface of and even above the regional planetary boundary layer in summer and that it can intercept different air masses relative to the 452 m site. Sulfate is ~19% lower at the higher elevation site, but comprises a greater percentage of total fine mass; 42% compared to 35% for the high and low elevation site, respectively. Aerosol strong acidity was found to increase with increasing sulfate concentrations at both sites. At the high elevation site, elevated mass and sulfate concentrations are associated with westerly and southwesterly regional flows.

This is a nice little table summarizing all of the data measurement sites: