Map of the Guadalupe Mountains Region NEW MEXICO TEXAS Guadalupe Mtns. Park Map To Carlsbad To El...
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![Page 1: Map of the Guadalupe Mountains Region NEW MEXICO TEXAS Guadalupe Mtns. Park Map To Carlsbad To El Paso To I-10 Visibility Degradation in Guadalupe Mountains.](https://reader038.fdocuments.us/reader038/viewer/2022110207/56649d4e5503460f94a2e045/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Map of the Guadalupe Mountains Region
NEWMEXICO
TEXAS
Guadalupe Mtns. Park Map
To Carlsbad
To El Paso
To I-10
Visibility Degradation in Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Span of Views from Guadalupe Mountains National Park
bext = 16 Mm-1
Visual Range = 240 kmbext = 24 Mm-1
Visual Range = 160 kmbext = 36 Mm-1
Visual Range = 110 kmbext = 78 Mm-1
Visual Range = 50 kmbext = 261 Mm-1
Visual Range = 15 km
Normal Visibility Severely Impaired Visibility
Today's Actions
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is enacting legislation to improve the visibility or
visual air quality in all Class 1 Federal areas. Federal Class 1 areas include 156 national parks
such as Guadalupe National Park, wilderness areas, national memorial parks, and international
parks that were in existence as of August 1977. Today legislation is addressing visibility in the
form of regional haze, a cloud of aerosols extending up to hundreds of miles across a region and
causing noticeably hazy conditions that are not easily traced to a single source. Haze obscures
the clarity, color, texture, and form of what we see. Some haze causing pollutants fall in the fine
particle mode, are directly emitted to the atmosphere by many activities such as: automobile
emissions, power plant emissions, industrial processes, and forestry and agricultural burning.
Other pollutants are formed when gases emitted into the air nucleate to form particles as they
are carried great distances from their source, such as sulfate which is formed from sulfur dioxide
and nitrate which is formed from nitrogen oxides.
Where does the air come from? Trajectory Modeling
The image overlaying the satellite
image on the top left of the screen,
shows the general path air traveled
(trajectory) 48 hours before arriving at
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
sampling site. Each green square
represents a one hour increment in the
position of the air mass. The
trajectories using the HYSPLIT
trajectory model written by Roland
Draxler. (Draxler, R. R., 1996: Trajectory Optimization for Balloon Flight Planning.
Weather and Forecasting, No.11, Pages 111-114.) The input for the HYSLIT model
is the output from the ETA model, which is run at the National Centers for
Environmental Prediction.
Air mass trajectory
Ambient air particulate matter concentrations
Particulate matter concentrations (PM
2.5) are shown on the top right section
of the screen overlaying the satellite
image is updated every 3 hours. PM
2.5 is the measure of particulate matter
smaller than 2.5 micrometers from
combustion and natural sources.
How and what creates the pollution?
Guadalupe Mountains National Park’s air comes from many different regions, such
as California, Denver, El Paso, and even the Gulf Coast. Particulate matter is
generally emitted from activities such as industrial and residential combustion and
vehicle exhaust. Particulate matter can also be formed when gases such as sulfur
dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds emitted by combustion
activities, are transformed by chemical reactions in the air. Due to the remoteness of
the park, there is ample time for chemical reactions to take place within an air mass.
Large-scale agricultural burning and sandstorms can produce huge volumes of fine
particulates.
25
20
15
10
5
0
b ext (
Mm
-1)
2002200019981996199419921990
Year
46
44
42
40
38
36
34
32
b ext (
Mm
-1)
20151050
Local hour
PM 2.5 measurements
Environmental and health concerns
Particles comprising PM 2.5 (sulfates, nitrates, organic carbon, smoke, and dust) have
been linked to numerous health effects like eye irritations and respiratory illnesses.
Health effects of particulate matter do not just effect people, but takes its toll on wildlife
as well through ecosystem damage. Animals can not hide from air pollution like
humans, thus they are effected by air pollution much more than humans. It can also
severely effect trees, plants, and flowers. Air pollution also significantly degrades visual
air quality. Such environmental effects will erase our wonderful wilderness areas of the
United States and cause economical nightmares in the surrounding communities.
The physics of visibility degradation
Visibility impairment occurs as a result of the
scattering and absorption of light by particles
and gases in the atmosphere. The schematic to
the right shows how particulate matter effects
light. Without the effects of pollution, a natural
Scattered light
Absorbed light
Unaffected light
Particle
Visual range is approximately 140 miles in the West and 90 miles in the East.
However, over the years, in many parts of the United States, fine particles have
significantly reduced the range that people can see. In the West, the current range is
33-90 miles, and in the East the current range is 14-24 miles.