Effect of Air Pollution on Precipitation along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains - Report Example

Insert full names Instructor’s name Insert Course name 20th November 2012 Introduction: Air pollution emissions are released from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Anthropogenic share of air pollution can be attributed to human-driven activities aimed at providing necessary goods and services to society. In the contemporary and an increasingly mechanized world, human activities have continued to daunt their exact own survival and an excellent example of this are climate change. A major contributor of climate change is air pollution, and it complicates and worsens it. Owing to the climate system’s inertia, the twentieth century’s anthropogenic releases have already devoted the earth to an additional 0.1°C of warming per decade. Hydro-systems including rivers, lakes, floods, soil stability and socio-economic systems have been affected by the decrease in mountain glaciers and snow covers. This has seen colossal destruction of ecosystems and melting of polar ice leading to heavy flooding in many parts of the world. By 2100, it is estimated that, almost a half of the world’s glacier could vanish. Air pollutants or aerosols have diverse sources ranging from homes to industries. Aerosols are any liquid or solid droplets suspended in gas. At homes, the use of packaged aerosols like sprays in cans also releases aerosols into the atmosphere. Logically, volcanic eruptions release volcanic dusts into the atmosphere which may have these aerosols while, in industries, most emissions occurs during production and manufacturing of products as well as recycling or disposal. Up on the release of industrial wastes to the air, physical and chemical reactions occur effecting to serious ecological reparations and health effects ranging from poor air and water quality, climate change and damage of ecosystems thus a significant environmental health problem affecting everyone in developing and developed countries alike. PM is the leading pollutant in ambient air. Its constituents are sulphates, water, ammonia, nitrates and sodium chloride. It is a complex mixture of both solid and liquid particles, organic and inorganic substances suspended in the air. It has been noted that by lessening air pollution levels, the global burden of disease from respiratory infections, heart disease, and lung cancer can be significantly reduced. In addition, levels respiratory and cardiovascular health of the population will only be if there are low levels of air pollution and that urban outdoor air pollution has been estimated to cause 1.3 million deaths worldwide annually. These statistics provide a few of the difficult effects of air pollution whose health pressures are injurious to human health causing heart and chronic respiratory diseases. It is prime to re-think again of the effects of air pollution in order to be able to restrain the global weight of disease it poses, cut global warming and to some extent warranty survival. Effect of Air Pollution on the Rocky Mountains' Precipitation along the Front Range The Rocky mountain regions from North Colorado to North Montana form complex mountain landscape. They are largely glaciated with plateaus and valleys. The central and northern Rocky Mountains climate is considered semi-arid, and there is a wide disparity in precipitation given the altitude. On the higher altitudes of the mountain, most precipitation is snow. On the slopes there is little rainfall. On the upslope, winds carry pollutants uphill affecting precipitation. For example, there is statistical evidence of a significant decrease in upslope precipitation at Ruxton Park. OEF decreased by almost 40% from 1.7 to 1.06 providing more proof of rainfall inhibition by air pollution along the Front Range. OEF is the precipitation ratio in the hills to that at the lower altitude site, however, generally elevated altitude areas have relatively large rainfall amounts especially the elevated sites thus with extensively larger OEFs. Pollution generated from urban areas and industries act to the sustained repression of rainfall through the creation of a slim cloud droplet spectrum, which restrains the coalescence and collision process. The ratios of precipitation of such elevated sites like the Rocky Mountains have condensed during the twentieth century, and this can be clearly attributed to the enhanced levels of pollution emissions. The impacts of Urban-boosted aerosol concentrations on convective storms and their development of precipitation down and over wind have been examined. This was attained through the usage of a cloud resolving meso-scale whereby sophisticated aerosol microphysics and land use processes were both incorporated. Determinant of storms developing in the downwind zone were actually urban-forced convergence and not actually the greater aerosol concentrations. However, in the initiation of convection, urban enhanced aerosols can actually wield a momentous consequence on the dynamics, the precipitation grounded by these storms and the microphysics. Moreover, response from the urban aerosols would also depend on their concentration backgrounds: for instance, an increased concentration background of an aerosol would lead to a weaker response. Aerosol’s effects are hugely influential on the rate and quantity of ice and liquid water produced at the time these storms occur, as well as the strength and timing of downdrafts and updrafts, their longevity, the collected surface rainfall, and the potency and manipulations of the cold pool. There is, however, a challenge when it comes to relating the incongruent feedbacks and relationships between the storm dynamics that exist, and the microphysics. This worsens the ability to give concrete statements of clarity about the very impacts of urban enhanced aerosols on the downwind precipitation and convection. Therefore, since an increase in background aerosol concentrations leads to a decreased effect on the urban aerosol on the downwind storms, results can only be generalized in respect to the distinctive disposition of the background aerosol for each particular region. In urban centers where background aerosol concentrations can be remarkably low in the coastal regions, urban aerosol is primarily influential on convective storm dynamics, rainfall and microphysics. Though sparsely populated in the northern parts, the Front Range area of the mountain of Colorado is increasingly being populated due to the growing cities and sub-urban settlements. The magnificent Rocky Mountain region is being over-occupied. The Rocky Mountain region have exhibited the highest growth rates in the U.S population and Canada with two counties Douglas in Colorado and Summit in Utah growing faster than the rest in the 1990s and the Rocky’s ecosystem has been custom-made by this human foray. Humans have considerably malformed the Rockies by clearing of timber for railway ties, and the removal of whole hill sides with hydraulic placer mining and inhabited developments that mark the most up-to-date incarnation of this expansion. Urban air pollution creates a significant risk to human health, the environment and quality of people’s life all over the world. It is these urban developments, also in Utah, that cause much of the VOC and nitrogen emissions and pollutants that not only notably intimidate air quality, but, also restrain rainfall. Air pollution from industries and urban areas acts to stifle rainfall in the Rocky Mountains. The Front Range of the mountains experience precipitation suppression by pollution. Lessening trends of upslope rainfall in high altitude and elevated areas is due to upward winds, which are polluted. This trend has occurred during a period of industrialization and urbanization; suggesting that anthropogenic air pollution has led to the control of orographic rainfall in areas along the Front Range over the last half century. Rainfall trends along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains have been pragmatic with an attempt to establish the impact of air pollution on rainfall in the region. It can, therefore, be concluded that the upslope ratio of rainfall for the elevated sites that are to the West of Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado up to the upwind urban sites, has fallen by 30% approximately over the elapsed half century. The most convincing evidence to this conclusion is that, no comparable rainfall trends were found for pristine sites. These trends in rainfall repression have serious implications among others on water supply in cities close to Denver and Colorado Springs. Continued rainfall restraint significantly reduces precipitation at the rate of 1 mm per year, and as these cities largely rely on snowmelt and runoff water from the mountains, it poses an enormous problem of not only reduced water supply, but, also water of poor quality and fascinatingly, it follows a vicious circle style. As the population expands in these cities, pollution emissions increase with increased human activities of production of goods and services thus suppressing rainfall along with the increasing water demands by the growing populations. Therefore, increasing pollutants concentration e.g. Colorado and Utah which have the highest nitrates emissions mainly from industrial solvents, fossil fuel combustion from electricity generating companies and vehicles, contributes to more and more rainfall suppression leading to depleted water supply and worse, water shortages in these cities at the Front Ranges consequently becoming a vicious circle. Works cited Alpert P. and et al (2008) Does Air Pollution Really Suppress Precipitation in Israel? Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology 47 (4), 933-943 Read More