Current exposure of Yukon Flats tribal villages' residents to PM₂.₅ from natural and anthropogenic sources: establishing baselines for climate change adaptation and resilience

• Main Author: Edwin, Stanley G.
• Other Authors: Mölders, Nicole, Collins, Richard L., Fochesatto, Javier, Stuefer, Martin
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Air quality; Fort Yukon; Chalkyitsik Village; Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge; Indoor air quality; Temperature inversions; Beaver; Alaska; Circle; Doctor of Philosophy in Atmospheric Sciences; Fairbanks; Ogilvie; Yukon; Brooks Range
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11122/12877

Dissertation (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2020 How healthy is the air in the villages during the summer fire seasons? Why does Fort Yukon always seem to be colder than the surrounding villages in winter and spring? How healthy is the air we breathe in our homes and workplaces? These are but a few of the questions asked by Alaska's Eastern Interior residential village's Indigenous Tribal Governments. A tribal-owned network of aerosol monitors and meteorological stations was installed at Ts'aahudaaneekk'onh Denh, Gwichyaa Zheh, Jałgiitsik, and Danzhit Khànlaj̜j̜ in the Yukon Flats, Alaska. To assess the exposure of residents in rural communities in the Yukon Flats to particulate matter of 2.5 [micro]m or less in diameter (PM2.5), both indoor and outdoor concentration observations were carried out from spring 2017 through to August 2019. Surface-based-temperature inversions occurred under calm wind conditions due to surface 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. Absorption of solar radiation in the smoke layer and upward scattering enhanced stability and fostered the persistence of the surface-based-temperature inversions. Under weak large-scale forcing mountain-valley circulations develop that are driven by the differences in insolation. During the long dark nights, surface radiative cooling occurs in the near-surface layer of the mountain slopes of the Brooks, Ogilvie and White Mountains Ranges and at the bottom of the valley. Here surface-based-temperature inversion - known as roof-top inversions - form, while the cold air drains from the slopes. A frontal wedge forms when the cold air slides over the relatively colder air in the valley. Drainage of cold air from the Brooks Range governed the circulation and cold air pooling in the valley. At the site, which is closest to the mountains, concentrations marginally ...