TITLE:
Particulate Matter Exposure of Rural Interior Communities as Observed by the First Tribal Air Quality Network in the Yukon Flat
AUTHORS:
Stanley G. Edwin, Nicole Mölders
KEYWORDS:
Summer Surface Inversions in the Yukon Flats, PM2.5 Concentrations in Rural Alaska Villages, First Tribal Air-Quality Network in the Yukon Flats
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.9 No.13,
December
27,
2018
ABSTRACT: A tribal-owned network of
aerosol monitors and meteorological stations was installed at Ts’aahudaaneekk’onh
Denh (Beaver), Gwichyaa Zheh (Fort Yukon), Jalgiitsik (Chalkyitsik), and
Danzhit Khànlaii (Circle) in the Yukon Flats, Alaska. Surface inversions
occurred under calm wind conditions due to radiative cooling. In May, local
emissions governed air quality with worst conditions related to road and river
dust. As the warm season progressed, worst air quality was due to transport of
pollutants from upwind wildfires. During situations without smoke or when smoke
existed at layers above the surface
inversion, concentrations of particulate matter of less than 2.5 micrometer in
diameter or less (PM2.5) were explainable by the local emissions;
24-h means remained below 25 μg·m-3. Absorption of solar radiation
in the smoke layer and upward scattering enhanced stability and fostered the
persistence of the surface inversions. During smoke episodes without the
presence of a surface inversion, daily mean concentrations exceeded 35 μg·m-3 often for several consecutive days, at all sites. Then concentrations
temporally reached levels considered unhealthy.