HR: 1340h
AN: H43E-0535    [Abstracts]
TI: Analysis of Rainfall and PM2.5 Data Using Clustered Trajectory Analysis for National Park Sites in the Western U.S.
AU: * Solorzano, N N
EM: NSolorzano@uwb.edu
AF: Dept. of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington, Bothell, 18115 Campus Way NE, Bothell, WA 98011 United States
AU: Hafner, W
EM: whafner@uwb.edu
AF: Dept. of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington, Bothell, 18115 Campus Way NE, Bothell, WA 98011 United States
AU: Jaffe, D
EM: djaffe@u.washington.edu
AF: Dept. of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington, Bothell, 18115 Campus Way NE, Bothell, WA 98011 United States
AB: We calculated daily kinematic back-trajectories using the NOAA-HYSPLIT model to analyze 7 years of PM2.5 data from National Park sites in the Western U.S. (Glacier N.P., Mount Rainier N.P., Sequoia N.P., Rocky Mountain N.P. and Denali N.P.) The back-trajectories were clustered using a k-means clustering algorithm to segregate the trajectories into 6 main transport patterns. We calculated trajectory clusters for 1, 5 and 10 days to represent short, medium and long-range flow patterns. Some trajectory types and clusters show marked seasonality. Generally faster flow patterns are more prevalent in winter and slower/stagnant patterns are more prevalent in summer. In addition, we found significant inter-annual variability that may be important for explaining variations in rainfall and/or pollutant concentrations. The 5 and 10-day analyses revealed that, for the 4 non-Alaskan sites, trajectories from Asia tend to be less frequent in the summer, compared to the rest of the year. The clusters of different duration show very different predictive power for rainfall and PM2.5. We found that the 1-day clusters are a better predictor for precipitation and PM2.5 concentrations, as compared to the 5 and 10-day clusters. At each of the sites, there is at least one cluster with an average PM2.5 concentration that is different than the average for the site, indicating distinctive transport patterns. The same is true for 5 and 10-day clusters. Interestingly, only one site, Mount Rainier N.P., shows seasonal differences in PM2.5 concentrations between the clusters that differ from the average.
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801, 4906)
DE: 0345 Pollution: urban and regional (0305, 0478, 4251)
DE: 0368 Troposphere: constituent transport and chemistry
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005