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.