The Whiteface Mountain Adirondack High Peaks Observatory

Home , Nephelometer, Snow pillow, Whiteface Mountain

James Schwab1, Rich Brandt1, Paul Casson1, Ken Demerjian1, Brian Crandall1, Oliver Rattigan2 and Kevin Civerolo2 1Atmospheric Sciences Research Center University at Albany, State University of New York 2New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 1 2016 Presentation outline

• Some history • About the mountain • Some measurement programs • Cloud Chemistry History and Measurements • PM and Trace Gas Trends

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 2 2016 Abbreviated History • 1800’s hiking adventures • 1892-1902 – Adirondack park established • 1909 – fire lookout station established • 1919 – steel lookout tower installed

Tower removed in 1971 and reassembled in Adirondack Museum

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 3 2016 Whiteface Mountain Memorial Highway

• 1927 – project approved • 1931 – construction begins • 1935 – road opened for tourists – FDR visit • 1936-7 – Tollhouse construction • 1938 – Tunnel (> 424 ft, 124 m long) and elevator (26 stories – 276 ft, 84 m tall) come into service

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 4 2016 Scientific Work

• Weather Bureau begins measurements in 30’s • 1961 – ASRC and SUNY begin “current era” of research at Whiteface • New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) owns the land and we operate under MOUs with them • 1969-71 – Construction of research facility (the “silo”) and replacement of fire tower • 1980 – Winter Olympics – Ray Falconer from ASRC provided weather forecasts, and the solar energy group from ASRC supplied solar powered communications stations

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 5 2016 Aerial View from 1970’s (or 1980’s?)

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 6 2016 Some properties

• Elevation -1483 m (4867 ft.) • Roughly 90 m above treeline • Mean Cloud Base Height - ~1100 m (3500 ft.) • AC power (generator back up) • High speed internet (fiber) • ASRC and DEC control access to observatory • Road is seasonal (winter access via snowmobile) • Structural renovations in 2012 (siding, windows, roof beams)

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 7 2016 Symposium on Atmospheric Chemistry and 8 Physics at Mountain Sites Marble Mountain Lodge

• Station Headquarters • Elevation – 604 m • Year round access by car • Laboratory facilities, lecture hall (meeting space) • Measurement location at clearing above and west of lodge

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 9 2016 Current Summit Measurements Gas, Aerosol, and Cloud Liquid

DATES PARAMETER PHASE METHOD AGENCY SEASON

1974-present O3 Gas UV optical absorption DEC Year-round 1995-present NO Gas chemiluminescence ASRC Year-round

1994-present NO2 Gas Photolytic conversion chemi ASRC Year-round

1989-present NOY Gas Heated Mo conversion chemi ASRC Year-round 1989-present CO Gas optical absorption - NDIR ASRC Year-round

1992-present SO2 Gas pulsed fluorescence ASRC Year-round 2016 - Particle Number Concentration Aerosol Water-based CPC ASRC Year-round 1978-present PM2.5 BC Aerosol aetholometer DOH Year-round 1979-present K, Sc, Mn, Fe, Zn, As, Se, Sb, Hg, Pb1 Aerosol Filter pack (TSP) DOH Year-round 2016- Gaseous SO2, HNO3; particulate SO42-, Gas- Aerosol CASTNet Filter Pack CASTNet Spring to fall NO3-,NH4+; elemental Ca,Na,Mg, Cl 1994-present SO4, NO3, Cl, Ca, Mg, Na, K,TOC, H, NH4 liquid (cloud only) Atomic absorption spectrometry ALSC Spring to fall 1994-present Cloud total cations liquid (cloud only) Ion chromatography ALSC Spring to fall 1994-present Cloud total anions liquid (cloud only) Ion chromatography ALSC Spring to fall 1994-present Cloud cation/anion ratio liquid (cloud only) Ion chromatography ALSC Spring to fall 1994-present Cloud Liquid Water Content (LWC) liquid (cloud only) optical forward scatter (Gerber) ALSC Spring to fall 1994-present Cloud Particle Surface Area (PSA) liquid (cloud only) optical side scatter (Gerber) ALSC Spring to fall 1994-present Cloud pH liquid (cloud only) meter/probe ALSC Spring to fall 1994-present Cloud specific conductivity liquid (cloud only) meter/probe at 25°C ALSC Spring to fall

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 10 2016 Current Summit Measurements - Meteorology

DATES PARAMETER METHOD AGENCY SEASON 1965-present Air Temperature Platinum RTD ASRC Year-round 1965-present Humidity CMOSens ASRC Year-round 1965-present Wind speed Heated three-cup ASRC Year-round 1965-present Wind direction Heated direction vane ASRC Year-round 1965-present Barometric pressure Pressure transducer ASRC Year-round 1994-present Air Temperature Platinum RTD ALSC Spring to fall 1994-present Wind speed Mechanical propeller ALSC Spring to fall 1994-present Wind direction Wind vane ALSC Spring to fall 1994-present Solar Radiation Pyranometer ALSC Spring to fall 1994-present Rain Sensor Heated grid ALSC Spring to fall

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 11 2016 Current Lodge Measurements – Gases, Aerosols, Precipitation

DATES PARAMETER PHASE METHOD AGENCY SEASON

1984-present O3 Gas UV Photometric DEC Year-round 2002-present NO Gas chemiluminescence ASRC Year-round

2002-present NO2 Gas Heated Mo conv chemi ASRC Year-round 2009-present CO Gas optical absorption - NDIR ASRC Year-round

1984-present SO2 Gas pulsed fluorescence DEC Year-round

2004-present PM 2.5 SO4 Aerosol thermal reduction to SO2 DEC Year-round 2002-present PM 2.5 scattering Aerosol White light nephelometer ASRC Year-round 2012-present PM 2.5 BC Aerosol Aetholometer DOH Year-round 2012-present PM 2.5 BC Aerosol Aetholometer DEC Year-round 1998-present PM 2.5, PM 10, PM Coarse Aerosol TEOM DEC Year-round 1998-present PM 2.5 Mass Aerosol FRM sampler DEC Year-round 2006-present PM2.5 Speciation Aerosol EPA CSN sampler DEC Year-round 2006-present Toxics (VOCs) Gas Canister, GC/MS DEC Year-round 2006-present Carbonyl Gas Cartridge, HPLC – UV abs. DEC Year-round 1984-present Precipitation gauge precipitation Load cell weighing gauge NADP Year-round 1984-present Precipitation collector precipitation Covered bucket with NADP Year-round optical sensor 2012-present Gaseous SO2, HNO3; particulate SO42-, Gas, Aerosol CASTnet Filter pack CASTNet Year-round NO3-,NH4+; elemental Ca,Na,Mg, Cl

2012-present NH3 Gas AMon Passive Sampler CASTNet Year-round

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 12 2016 Current Lodge Measurements – Meteorology

DATES PARAMETER METHOD AGENCY SEASON 2012-present Air Temperature Platinum RTD CASTNET Year-round 2011-present Air Temperature ( daily max/min ) Platinum RTD NADP Year-round 2012-present Barometric pressure Pressure transducer ASRC Year-round 1984-present Barometric pressure Pressure transducer NYS Mesonet Year-round 1984-present Air Temperature 2m, 10m Platinum RTD NYS Mesonet Year-round 1984-present Humidity Humicap NYS Mesonet Year-round 1984-present Wind speed sonic NYS Mesonet Year-round 1984-present Wind direction sonic NYS Mesonet Year-round 2016-present Solar Radiation LICOR pyranometer NYS Mesonet Year-round 2016-present Soil Moisture, EC, and Temperature (3 levels) Stevens Hydraprobe NYS Mesonet Year-round 2016-present Precipitation Load Cell (weighing gauge) NYS Mesonet Year-round 2016? Snow depth Acoustic ranging NYS Mesonet Year-round 2016? Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) 1. Snow Pillow NYS Mesonet Year-round 2. Weighing Gauge 3. Gamma Radiation Spectometer

http://www.nysmesonet.org/mesonow

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 13 2016 Summit Temperature Record

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 14 2016 Cloud Chemistry History

• 1976 – ASRC begins cloud collection program • 1986-89 – Mountain Cloud Chemistry Program (MCCP) sponsored by EPA • 1994-2000 – Mountain Acid Deposition Program (MADPro) sampling as part of CASTNet • 2001-present – NYSERDA and DEC sponsor Adirondack Lake Survey Corporation (ALSC) to sample clouds at Whiteface in summer

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 15 2016 Omni-directional Cloud Collector ASRC (Mohnen) design

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 16 2016 Whiteface Mountain Cloud Frequency

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 17 Based on ALSC data 2016 Cloud Bank looking south toward the Adirondack High Peaks

Wild Center webcam: Time lapse videos from WF summit: Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 18 http://wildcenter.org/summitcam/wfsummit.jpg 2016 http://research.asrc.albany.edu/ Seminal Work on In-Cloud S(IV) Oxidation

• Liquat (Lee) Husain’s group at the Wadsworth Lab (NYS DOH) did work on this and published numerous papers in the 1980’s and 1990’s and early 2000’s • They used a tracer technique (Se, As, Sb) to determine how much of the sulfate measured in the cloud water was due to in situ oxidation

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 19 2016 Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 20 2016 Summit Cloud Water pH Trend

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 21 Source: EPA and Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation2016 (adirondacklakessurvey.org ) Average Cloud Chemistry – Major Inorganic Species

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 22 2016 ALSC Data Files

• http://www.adirondacklakessurvey.org/wfc.shtml

• Currently through 2014 • 2015 soon? (Jed?)

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 23 2016 PM2.5 Trends at Lodge Level

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 24 2016 PM2.5 OC at Lodge Level

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 25 2016 Trends of Trace Gases at Summit

• O3 since mid-1970’s

• SO2, CO, and nitrogen oxides since late 1980’s or early 1990’s • In the past decade there has been a noticeable decrease in annual mean ozone – driven by summertime (and maybe fall) values

• Decreases in SO2 and NOy are striking – similar to observations elsewhere in North America

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 26 2016 Ozone: 1975 - 2015

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 27 2016 SO2: 1992 - 2015

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 28 2016 NOy: 1989 - 2015

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 29 2016 Acknowledgements

• New York State Energy Research and Development Authority • (Before that) Empire State Electric Energy Research Corporation • Adirondack Lake Survey Corporation • US EPA, NYS DEC, NYS DOH • Doug Wolfe, Shari Kent, Utpal Roychowdhury. Richard Lamica, Ken Eckhardt, and others

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 30 2016 Current Summit Measurements - Repeat

DATES PARAMETER PHASE METHOD AGENCY SEASON

1974-present O3 Gas UV optical absorption DEC Year-round 1995-present NO Gas chemiluminescence ASRC Year-round

1994-present NO2 Gas Photolytic conversion chemi ASRC Year-round

1989-present NOY Gas Heated Mo conversion chemi ASRC Year-round 1989-present CO Gas optical absorption - NDIR ASRC Year-round

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 31 2016 Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 32 2016 Back Up Slides

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 33 2016 Trend Data from NADP Site - pH

http://nadp.isws.illinois.edu/sites/ntn/ntntrends.html?siteID=NY98 Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 34 2016 Sulfate – Rainwater Concentration

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 35 2016 Nitrate – Rainwater Concentration

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 36 2016 Ammonium – Rainwater Concentration

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 37 2016 Precipitation Trend - Lodge

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 38 2016 Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 39 2016 Emissions

MANE_VU – Mid Atlantic Northeast Visibility Union Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 40 2016 Ambient Concentrations - Gaseous

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 41 2016 Ambient Concentrations - Aqueous

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 42 2016 Summary

• Versatile and extensive measurements at two levels on this mountain • Particularly well suited to cloud research • Long Term measurements of many parameters • Great data sets for accountability and verification of regulatory actions • Collaborations welcome

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 43 2016 Summit ozone by season

Whiteface Mountain Workshop, September 44 2016