Over the Volcano: Researchers Search for Air Pollution in the Azores
The
Portuguese Air Force carried 10 spools of 2400 V power cable, the
atmospheric measure measurement building, and all equipment, from the
end of the nearest road 1000 m below. Video
Report Photo of the setup
team. From left to right: Antonio Jenkins, Matt Peterson, Paulo Fialho,
Maria Val Martín, Richard Honrath, Chris Edlin, and Mike Dziobak. If you want to measure air
pollution drifting across the North Atlantic, there's just one place on
earth to do it.
Thus, it was on top of a volcano,
Pico mountain in the Azores, that Associate Professor Richard Honrath
and his research team lowered a laboratory the size of an ice-fishing
shanty, with considerable assistance from a Portuguese Air Force helicopter
crew, on July 2.
Honrath (Civil and Environmental
Engineering) and his research team assembled the lab and its instrumentation
at Michigan Tech before trucking it to Milwaukee. The U.S. Air National
Guard then flew the half-ton structure plus six tons of additional cargo
to the Azores in a C130 transport plane, landing at Lajes Air Force Base
on the island of Terceira.
As the only islands in the
region that are located far from continents, the misty Azores have long
been an important site for scientists studying the pristine atmosphere
above the North Atlantic. However, at lower altitudes, up to about 1,500
meters, or 4,900 feet, the ocean tends to scrub the atmosphere clean,
so detecting the drift of pollutants is extremely difficult.
There are some very good reasons
scientists hadn't established a station on Pico, however. The nearest
road ends 1,000 meters below the summit, and those last 1,000 meters make
for a very challenging hike. No utilities are available, and access is
restricted for both safety and environmental reasons.
Nevertheless,
it is a perfect spot for tracking the drift of emissions across long distances.
Researchers also believe a station there could be key to determining how
local pollution can become part of the global atmosphere and possibly
precipitate global warming.
Some air pollutants have a
relatively short shelf life, quickly reacting with other chemicals to
form harmless compounds or washing out of the air in a local rain. Others
travel far from their mother smokestack or tailpipe, and these are the
pollutants that attract Honrath's interest.
In the Azores, prevailing winds
carry pollution from eastern North America across the ocean, while pollution
from western Europe is sometimes blown south and east. The station atop
Pico will detect the frequency and intensity of pollution flows over the
region, which will allow researchers to determine the amount of pollutants
that hitchhike into the global atmosphere.
"We are particularly interested
in ozone," Honrath said. A powerful shield against UV light in the
stratosphere, in the lower atmosphere ozone is the primary ingredient
in smog, causing serious respiratory problems in some people. It's also
a major greenhouse gas and can inhibit plant growth.
"Plus, it's a key player
in atmospheric chemistry," Honrath said. "Ozone controls the
life of other chemicals. It's highly reactive, and it actually breaks
down other pollutants."
In addition, the PICO-NARE
(stands for Pico International atmospheric Chemistry Observatory-North
Atlantic Regional Experiment) station is tracking black carbon dust and
carbon monoxide, and next year the researchers will begin testing for
nitrogen oxides.
The morning the Portuguese
helicopter crew began airlifting the lab and all its component parts up
to Pico's summit, "the weather was terrible: cold, blowing clouds,
we couldn't see a thing," Honrath recalls. However, by the end of
the day, the team had anchored the building and installed the equipment.
The second day, they hooked it up to a generator over one-and-a-half miles
down the mountain.
In addition to the air force,
the local volunteer fire department helped researchers get the equipment
up the mountain. "It turned out be be a really nice team effort,"
Honrath noted.
The PICO-NARE researchers have
permission from the Portuguese government to continue their experiments
for two years at the Azores' highest point. For more information, visit
http://www.cee.mtu.edu/~reh/pico/
Professor Paulo Fialho of the
University of the Azores is cooperating in the PICO-NARE effort. Other
members of the Michigan Tech research team are Research Scientist Matt
Peterson, PhD students Chris Edlin and Maria Val Martin, Assistant Research
Scientist Mike Dziobak and undergraduate Antonio Jenkins (Civil and Environmental
Engineering).
Low
Resolution (1.9 MB)
High
Resolution (4.1 MB)
At
an elevation of 2,225 meters, Pico mountain, located on Pico Island, is
the only spot in the Azores where the air is high enough to escape the
effects of the ocean environment. In fact, its barren summit often pokes
through the clouds that mark the top of this marine boundary layer.
The
lab is fully automated, and readings are being downloaded through a cellular
Internet connection. It's a good thing, too, since conditions at Pico
do not lend themselves to frequent visits.
