Results from the ALPACA-2022 field study are starting to be published in peer-reviewed journals. Four manuscripts from the field study appeared in the March 2024 issue of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Environmental Science & Technology — Air (ACS ES&T Air) journal. The link below goes to the journal’s March 8th issue:
https://pubs.acs.org/toc/aeacd5/1/3
See the ALPACA-2022 publications page to keep up to date on the publications coming out from the study.
Science for Alaska: First Friday Kickoff
Friday, February 3 — 5:30 to 7 p.m.
the Pub, UAF (21+)
Science for Alaska is kicking off the traditional lecture series with a fun new storytelling event from the UAF Pub stage! Enjoy an evening of six short, engaging, image-based talks about glaciers, earthquakes, the HAARP facility, Fairbanks winter air quality, the Alaska Satellite Facility, and flooding and storm impacts on St. Paul Island.
Bring your friends to share some free snacks and enter for a chance to win door prizes. Drinks available for purchase. UAF KSUA student radio will be streaming these talks live to their channel, 91.5 FM. This event will not be on Zoom.
Join this Facebook event for updates (Feb. 3)
We updated the information on the ALPACA-2022 field study with more information on the participating groups and measurements made at sites around Fairbanks. Please see the ALPACA-2022 page. The ALPACA research groups have produced preliminary data analyses that are being refined for publication. Keep an eye out on the news page for exciting new results.
At 6PM (AKST) on Tuesday, 22 Nov. 2022, we will be presenting early results from the ALPACA-2022 field study to the Fairbanks North Star Borough Air Pollution Control Commission. This presentation is available by Zoom at the link below. After the talk, we will post an update.
During the field study component, we are holding virtual open houses where scientists at the field sites describe their science questions, show what a field site looks like during a study, and answer your questions. There are two virtual events, which are available via Zoom and Facebook live. Participants on both platforms will be able to join the discussion. The events are 7 p.m. AKST on two Thursdays in February. The dates are:
Feb. 3 will focus on the Hamilton Acres field site, where we are investigating indoor and outdoor air, air exchange, and indoor sources and chemistry.
Feb. 17 will focus on the UAF Community and Technical College field site, where we investigate multi-phase chemical processing of gases and particles that grow particulate matter.
The ALPACA 2022 field study is in full swing. Forty scientists from across the lower 48 and Europe have come to Fairbanks to work with UAF scientists and study air pollution under cold and dark conditions. We have rented a house in which we will study indoor and outdoor air quality in the neighborhood. Four mass spectrometers in the garage are alternately sampling indoor and outdoor air. We have also set up three trailers at the UAF CTC site in downtown Fairbanks. These trailers house instruments that will improve our understanding of chemical processing of pollution under cold and dark conditions. We are also vertically profiling pollution above Fairbanks with remote sensing, mobile monitoring that drives up and down hills, and balloons.
The planning efforts for the upcoming ALPACA-2022 field study are underway. This large field study will bring about three dozen researchers to Fairbanks to study air quality under cold and dark conditions of high latitude winter. See the ALPACA-2022 page for more information, dates, sites, and logistics.
We updated the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) on the main ALPACA field study, which was delayed by COVID precautions and now is planned to start in January, 2022. More information, the slides we presented, and a video are available from the IARPC collaborations site. Thanks to IARPC for facilitating this event.
The FairAir project, which is organized under ALPACA, is holding a series of informational events to discuss air quality in Fairbanks. See the https://fairair.community.uaf.edu site for more details.
We have decided to delay the Alaskan Layered Pollution and Chemical Analysis (ALPACA) field intensive that was planned for Jan-Feb 2021. This decision was made in the light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. By delaying the project, we reduce COVID-19 risks to the community and participants, which was foremost among our considerations. We were also concerned about the possibility that restrictions on travel, social distancing, and the complexity of bringing dozens of researchers from around the globe might compromise data coverage or lead to missing measurements, adversely impacting our scientific goals.
We are now planning to hold the main ALPACA field intensive in Jan-Feb 2022, stay tuned for updates via this website or by signing up for the mailing list.
We hope that you all are safe and healthy and remain so during this challenging time.
The ALPACA organizing committee:
Bill Simpson, Kathy Law, Kerri Pratt, Jingqiu Mao, Julia Schmale, and Stephen Arnold