[AZ-Observing] The Disappearance of Arizona's Famed Dark Skies

Remember some time ago I speculated Arizona's famed astronomical skies 
would disappear some time in the future because of pollution from 
China-Asia. I read this in Yahoo this morning. Very disturbing. 
Naturally, because of our dependence on China for financing our deficit, 
poor economy, and influence by corporations, Washington will lack the 
guts to take necessary measures internationally to protect our health 
from pollutants like mercury.
Stan

WASHINGTON — From 500 miles in space, satellites track brown clouds of 
dust, soot and other toxic pollutants from China and elsewhere in Asia 
as they stream across the Pacific and take dead aim at the western U.S.

A fleet of tiny, specially equipped unmanned aerial vehicles, launched 
from an island in the East China Sea 700 or so miles downwind of Beijing 
, are flying through the projected paths of the pollution taking 
chemical samples and recording temperatures, humidity levels and 
sunlight intensity in the clouds of smog.

On the summit of 9,000-foot Mt. Bachelor in central Oregon and near sea 
level at Cheeka Peak on Washington state's Olympic Peninsula , monitors 
track the pollution as it arrives in America.

By some estimates more than 10 billion pounds of airborne pollutants 
from Asia — ranging from soot to mercury to carbon dioxide to ozone — 
reach the U.S. annually. The problem is only expected to worsen: Some 
Chinese officials have warned that pollution in their country could 
quadruple in the next 15 years.

While some scientists are less certain, others say the Asian pollution 
could destabilize weather patterns across the North Pacific, mask the 
effects of global warming, reduce rainfall in the American West and 
compromise efforts to meet air-pollution standards.

" East Asia pollution aerosols could impose far reaching environmental 
impacts at continental, hemispheric and global scales because of 
long-range transport," according to a report earlier this year in the 
Journal of Geophysical Research . The report said that a "warm conveyor 
belt" lifts the pollutants into the upper troposphere — the lowest layer 
of Earth's atmosphere — over Asia , where winds can bring it to the U.S. 
in a week or less.

The National Academies of Science, at the request of the Environmental 
Protection Agency , NASA , the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration and in consultation with the State Department , has 
assembled a panel to examine the problem and its impact. Its report is 
due next summer.

"Everyone realizes this is an issue of growing importance," said Laurie 
Geller of the National Academies of Science. "This is very challenging 
science with lots of complexities and a lot of uncertainties."

Though the problem of Asian air pollution has been known for years, no 
one has a handle on how much is blown in and what it includes. 
Scientists say Washington state and Oregon might be feeling the brunt of 
the effects.

"This pollution is distributed on average equally from northern 
California to British Columbia ," said Dan Jaffe , a professor of 
environmental science at the University of Washington's Bothell campus. 
"Anyone who has gone out to measure it has found something."

Particulates such as dust and soot, along with heavy metals, pesticides, 
PCBs, mercury, ozone, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur 
dioxide have all been found. Jaffe said the pollutants can't be tracked 
to a single source such as a particular coal-burning plant, but their 
"chemical fingerprints" can point to a specific country.

Viruses, bacteria and fungi also can be transported on dust particles, 
though, so far, they've been found only on the dust and sand blowing off 
African deserts, not Asian ones.

Mercury, one of the most hazardous pollutants from the hundreds of 
coal-burning electricity generating plants in China and elsewhere in 
Asia , is of particular concern. One study estimated a fifth of the 
mercury entering Oregon's Willamette River comes from overseas, with 
China as the mostly likely source.

Jaffe, a member of the National Academies of Science panel studying the 
issue, is wary of such reports. But he still estimates that as much as 
30 percent of the mercury deposited in the U.S. from airborne sources 
comes from Asia , with the highest concentrations in Alaska and other 
western states.

"Ten years ago, there was a lot of skepticism," Jaffe said. "People 
assumed the atmosphere scrubbed itself and didn't believe these 
pollutants could travel thousands of miles."

The pollution from Asia will only make it increasingly difficult for the 
U.S. to meet stricter and stricter air quality standards, said Lyatt 
Jaegle, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of 
Washington in Seattle .

"It is only expected to get worse," Jaegle said of the Asian air 
pollution reaching the U.S. She added that scientists have discovered 
the problem isn't unique to the Pacific Rim . "Air pollution is not a 
local or regional problem, it is a global problem."

Days after a major dust storm in the Gobi Desert in Asia , visibility in 
the Grand Canyon was obscured. Dust from deserts in North Africa has 
reached Florida . U.S. air pollution can reach across the Atlantic to 
Europe , even as pollution from Europe can circle the globe and reach 
the U.S.

Air can circulate around the world in three weeks or less. The National 
Academies of Science is not limiting itself to pollution from Asia and 
will study the phenomenon worldwide.

"It's one atmosphere," said Mark Schoeberl , project scientist for NASA 
Aura satellite program.

Schoeberl said his and other satellites have "transformed" what 
scientists know about the Earth and can provide a near real-time 
snapshot of the track of airborne pollution. When the price of gasoline 
spikes, Jaffe said satellites can detect an increase in sulfur dioxide 
levels at Saudi Arabian refineries . They've also helped confirm global 
dimming as sunlight reaching the planet's surface is decreasing because 
the airborne pollution reflects it back to space. In some places, like 
Israel , sunlight has decreased 10 percent, Jaffe said.

The pollution also can mask the effect of global warming by reflecting 
the sunlight, said Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a climate researcher at the 
Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California who's heading the team 
of scientists flying the unmanned aerial vehicles off Korea this summer.

The UAVs started flying as China shut down factories and banned 
automobiles from Beijing during the Summer Olympics and are still flying 
as pollution levels increase.

"It's a once in a lifetime opportunity," Ramanathan said.

The reduction in sunlight could be increasing rainfall or it might be 
decreasing rainfall because of less evaporation off the ocean, 
Ramanathan said. In addition, the soot falling on mountains in the 
western U.S. could increase snowmelt, he said.

"There are a lot of questions and few answers," Ramanathan said. "We 
shouldn't be pointing fingers. Everyone else is some one else's 
backyard. This is a global problem."


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