In Glacier Bay National Park, about 95% of the visitors come on board of cruise ships. The National Park Service has the mandate to manage park resources like air quality and visibility, while ensuring visitation. To understand the impact of cruise-ship emissions on the overall concentrations in Glacier Bay, emission-source contribution ratios (ESCR) and the interaction of pollutant from local and/or distant sources were determined using results from four WRF/Chem simulations of the 2008 tourist season (May 15 to September 15). These simulations only differed by the emissions considered: Biogenic emissions only (CLN), biogenic plus activity-based cruise-ship emissions (REF), biogenic plus all anthropogenic emissions except cruise-ship emissions (RETRO), and all aforementioned emissions (ALL). In general, ESCRs differed among pollutants. Interaction between pollutants from cruise-ship emissions and species from other sources including those advected into the bay decreased towards the top of the atmospheric boundary layer. Pollutants from different sources interacted strongest (lowest) in the west arm of the fjord where ships berthed for glacier viewing (in areas of the bay without cruise-ship travel). Pollutant interaction both enhanced/reduced NO 2 concentrations by 10% (4 - 8 ppt absolute). Except for ozone, cruise-ship emissions on average governed air quality in the bay. On days with cruise-ship visits, they contributed between 60% and 80% of the bay-wide daily mean SO 2 and NO 2 concentrations below 1 km height. On days without visits, cruise-ship contributions still reached 40% due to previous visits. Highest cruise-ship ESCRs occurred during stagnant weather conditions. Despite the fact that all coarse particulate matter was due to anthropogenic sources, worst visibility conditions were due to meteorology. The results suggest limits as well as windows for managing air quality and visibility in Glacier Bay.
In recent years, the phenomenon of “last chance tourism” has increased. Herein people wish to visit places such as the Arctic, Antarctic, and tidewater glaciers, which they anticipate to be irreversibly impacted by climate change, before they are gone [
Once these primary pollutants and particles are in the ABL, they form secondary pollutants and/or secondary particles by chemical reactions and gas-to-particle conversion [
Glacier Bay National Park is located in southeastern Alaska, and represents a coveted destination for cruise-ship passengers. The National Park Service (NPS), which manages Glacier Bay by regulating vessel volume and operating conditions, has a dual mandate to both promote visitation while also protecting park resources and values. Glacier Bay has a number of accessible tidewater glaciers, but no roads that allow visitors to experience and enjoy these and other park resources. Thus, cruise ships play a crucial role in providing visitor access, regularly constituting over 95% of the >450,000 annual visitors. The NPS must thus carefully consider the value of cruise ships for meeting the visitation mandate with the impacts from cruise ships that may violate the resource-protection mandate, particularly to visibility, air quality and other park resources.
Unfortunately, the atmosphere knows no boundaries. Hence, unlike evaluating water-quality impacts, where the inputs of a pollutant can be calculated relative to the volume of the receiving water body to compare with national concentration standards, the atmosphere prohibits assessing impacts in terms of contaminant emissions into a closed volume. Instead air quality is compared to the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS), which is expressed as a mean concentration per volume (usually 1 m−3) or as a fraction of a particle number (e.g. parts per million (ppm), part per billion (ppb)) threshold for a determined amount of time that varies by pollutants.
Even when an inversion extends over the entire bay, and limits the exchange with air from aloft, still some lateral exchange may occur at the park’s entrance to Icy Strait [
Under inversion conditions, inversion height varies over the bay [
Knowledge on how pollutants from local and distant sources interact to affect air quality is limited. During the Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS), and Aerosol, Radiation, and Cloud Processes affecting Arctic Climate (ARCPAC) campaigns in April, June, and July 2008, carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations from anthropogenic emissions in Asia and Europe were found in the mid-troposphere of the North American Arctic [
Similar results have been found with marine-sourced emissions affecting air quality over terrestrial areas. For example, air-quality model simulations revealed that in northern Germany and Denmark, more than 50% of the summer 2000 sulfate, nitrate and ammonium aerosol concentrations were due to ship emissions in the North Sea [
Given these results, and the dual mandate of the NPS, we examined the limits to which the NPS can manage/control air quality successfully in Glacier Bay. While the NPS can regulate the number of cruise ships that enter the park, set entrance quota and/or speed limits, and set up competitive contracts that result in ships using low sulfur fuel [
We thus investigated how pollutants from different local and distant sources contribute to air quality and their overall impact on visibility in Glacier Bay and how these pollutants interact. The goal was to examine whether and to which degree air quality and visibility in Glacier Bay are determined by emissions within the bay. To achieve this goal, we 1) identified impacts from distant sources on concentrations in Glacier Bay over the length of a tourist season (May 15 to September 15); 2) quantified the contributions from different sources (natural emissions and background, cruise ship emissions, and anthropogenic emissions except cruise-ship emissions, all of these) on air quality and visibility conditions in the bay; 3) examined whether pollutants from different local and distant sources interacted with each other, thereby increasing/ reducing concentrations of products/reactants, and 4) compared the contributions of emission sources to the mean concentrations over Southeast Alaska and Glacier Bay. An important pre-requisite for any air-quality management is that air-quality is governed by local controllable sources. Thus, we used a well-evaluated air-quality model and performed four simulations that only differed by the emissions considered. The setup of the simulations was designed to determine the emission-source contribution ratios (ESCR) [
The air-quality model used in our study is the WRF/Chem [
All simulations were driven by the 1˚ × 1˚, 6 h-resolution National Centers for Environmental Prediction global final analyses (FNL) data [
In all four WRF/Chem simulations, the same idealized profiles of clean air background concentrations served as initial conditions of the chemical fields at the start of the simulation and provided the lateral boundary conditions over the May 15 to September 15, 2008 “tourist season” [
The model domain encompassed the atmosphere over Southeast Alaska with 28 layers from the surface to 100 hPa, and 120 × 120 grid-points of 7 km horizontal increment centered at 58.5N, 135.5W. To permit adjustment of the meteorological and chemical fields and minimize errors from lateral boundary effects, we discarded five grid-points on each lateral boundary from the results (
Anthropogenic emissions, except from cruise ships were derived from the 0.5˚ × 0.5˚ Reanalysis of the Tropospheric Chemical Composition (RETRO) data. For cruise ships, we calculated activity-based emissions using Automated Information System (AIS) voyage data (ship position, cruise speed, operation mode) and the individual ships’ characteristics (engine power, size, fuel type, maximum cruise speed, etc.) [
We performed four WRF/Chem simulations for the tourist “season”. For all simulations, model setup, boundary conditions, and initialization were identical except for the choice of the emissions inventory.
Our CLN simulation included only biogenic emissions and, due to the absence of anthropogenic emissions, represented a “clean” atmosphere [
Being in control of the air quality in Glacier Bay would require that in the bay, air quality only or at least to a high percentage depends on the emissions occurring inside the bay. This means that advection of pollutants from other sources including cruise ships outside of Glacier Bay would have to be negligibly small relative to the pollutant concentrations from sources occurring inside the bay. Furthermore, the concentrations inside
the bay should not have been modified by chemical reactions with pollutants from local non-controllable and/or distant sources.
To test the hypothesis of No interaction of pollutants from different local and/or distant sources we applied the principle of superposition [
Since both REF and RETRO considered background concentrations and biogenic emissions, we subtracted the concentrations obtained by the CLN simulation from both REF and RETRO to account for the contribution of natural emissions and background concentrations to the total atmospheric concentrations only once. After some algebra, we obtain
Here, i, j, k are the indices of a model grid-cell, m is the chemical species or particulate matter, and t is time.
If there were no interactions of pollutants from different local and/or distant emission sources, the left hand side of Equation (1) would not differ significantly, at the 95% confidence level in a two-tailed t-test [
Due to atmospheric transport, the atmospheric composition can contain pollutants emitted at different places. For example, assume a wind of 10 m∙s−1 blows from Juneau to Glacier Bay that are about 150 km apart. Pollutants emitted in Juneau by anthropogenic sources including cruise ships would reach Glacier Bay about 4.2 hours later. During transport, chemical reactions and gas-to-particle conversion of the primary pollutants and particles emitted at Juneau produce secondary pollutants and particles. Furthermore, chemical reactions, removal processes, and emissions from sources along the way, as well as mixing processes modify the air composition. Once the aged air reaches Glacier Bay, reactions between these pollutants from various different distant sources and those from the local cruise-ship emissions may occur. Following [
The emission-source contribution ratios (ESCR) [
Here
Furthermore,
According to Equation (2), interaction of pollutants from different local and distant sources, and non-linear chemical reactions can enhance or diminish ALL concentrations as compared to the concentrations obtained by adding the concentrations in response to the individual emissions inventories.
Equation (3) permits negative ESCR values, when the concentration in CLN exceeds that of REF or RETRO, respectively. Negative ESCRx (x = REF, RETRO) values result from interaction. They mean that the emissions from the respective source permitted chemical reactions and processes that reduced the ALL concentration of the respective species. In other words, if the emitted species would not have reacted, the ALL concentration would be higher than it is by the absolute of the percentage. Adding reactive species m to a (clean) air sample reduces the species it reacts with and increases the concentrations of the reaction products. The products may further react when they are not an end product of the reaction chain. When the species m and its initial reactant(s) are not reproduced in the reaction chain, their concentrations decrease [
In general, reactions requiring low energy are favored over those needing comparatively higher energy at same temperature. Reaction rates differ among reactive species. Furthermore, reactions may be limited by low concentrations of their reactants. For instance, in a closed air parcel of NO-NO2-O3 under quasi-steady state conditions, the ozone concentration remains constant despite of the occurring reactions. Adding NOx to this air parcel decreases the O3 concentration. Adding VOC instead introduces competing reactions. As long as the VOC/NOx ratio of the parcel is low, its air is VOC-sen- sitive. It is NOx sensitive for low NOx and high VOC concentrations. In this case, O3 concentration increases with increasing NOx and little response of VOC.
In the clean atmosphere, background chemistry also occurs [
Chemical processes conserve the total mass of atoms, but not molecule species. Anthropogenic emissions may add species that also have natural sources and/or species that do not occur in the clean atmosphere [
We examined the mean ESCRs from the different sources and pollutant interactions to the atmospheric composition of ALL to assess the degree to which NPS managers have the possibility to manage air quality in Glacier Bay. We used comparison to the mean concentrations in Southeast Alaska with the assumption that differences between the mean composition of ALL in Southeast Alaska vs. Glacier Bay provide evidence that local emissions within the bay’s air shed govern its air quality. The value of ESCRREF represents the degree to which cruise-ship emissions in Glacier Bay determine the concentration of the respective species inside the bay. The difference 1-ESCRREF is the limit for management. The lower this limit is for an emitted species (1-ESCRREF
Anthropogenic emissions contributed all coarse particulate matter, i.e. PM10 with diameters exceeding 2.5 μm, but being less than or equal to 10 μm in diameter in ALL, RETRO, and REF. In CLN, all PM10 was PM2.5. Comparison of the REF and RETRO seasonal mean profiles of SO2 over the Glacier Bay water proper (
about 1.5 km above water level (850 hPa) relates to the background profile (compare to CLN).
The height of highest daily mean SO2 concentrations in the ABL differed with time due to local weather conditions (not shown; cf. [
Comparison of bay-wide seasonal means of CLN, REF, RETRO, and ALL NOx concentrations (
Averaged over the season and to about 152 m above the water surface, ALL SO2 emissions and concentrations correlated significantly at the 95% confidence level over the international shipping lane (southwestern corner of the model domain), port cities, some waterways, and most of Canada (
low concentrations. Below the first 152 m or so, significant, but low NO emission-con- centration correlations occurred over the major highways in Canada. NO emission- concentration correlations were comparatively higher over the waterways in the Alexander Archipelago including Glacier Bay, locally along the coast where cruise-ships travel density was high (cf. [
Across Southeast Alaska waters, ALL PM10 concentrations visibly reflected the ship routes as ships are the only source for coarse particulate matter over water (
In ALL and REF, the cruise path thru the bay was clearly visible at the time of the voyage for all emitted species, and even notable on season average for NOx and PM2.5 (
Highest concentrations did not exactly correspond to the areas adjacent to the tidewater glaciers where ships berth for several hours to allow passengers time to experience the scenery. The slightly off-set of the “expected location” for concentration maxima was due to the coarse grid resolution, discretization of the advection-diffusion equations, and lost AIS signals. The former two are well-known modeling artifacts [
Comparison of CLN and RETRO SO2 concentrations revealed marginal increases in Glacier Bay due to advection of SO2 from other anthropogenic sources than cruise ships (not shown). Comparing SO2 concentrations simulated by REF and ALL confirmed these findings (
Over the bay, increases in ALL and REF hourly NOx and hence daily mean concentrations corresponded to cruise-ship visits (
VOC has both anthropogenic and natural sources [
air composition over the water body (therefore not shown). On the contrary, cruise- ship emissions dominated the VOC concentrations over the water proper in REF [
In Southeast Alaska, the complex terrain prohibits dairy and agricultural activities. Consequently, the major ammonia (NH3) emission sources were anthropogenic. Highest NH3 concentrations occurred in the maritime ABL over the shipping lanes and waterways as well as in the urban ABL of port cities due to ship emissions. Ammonia can neutralize nitric acid (HNO3), which forms by NOx oxidation, to produce ammonium nitrate aerosol (NH4NO3) [
In all four simulations, hourly O3 concentrations were typically less than 50 ppb, sometimes even below 40 ppb in the maritime ABL of Glacier Bay. Thus, over the entire season, 8-hour mean near-surface O3 concentrations remained below the EPA NAAQS of 70 ppb. Bay-wide season mean O3 profiles differed negligibly between REF and ALL or CLN and ALL (
Over the entire season, ambient air temperatures governed PAN concentrations. Similar to O3, anthropogenic emissions other than from cruise ships had small impact on the PAN concentrations found in Glacier Bay (therefore not shown). This finding indicates that besides temperature, cruise-ship emissions in the bay affected the PAN concentrations in Glacier Bay (
While cruise ships emit PM, PM also forms naturally from gas-to-particle conversion from precursor gases [
Over the season, in the first layers above surface, PM2.5 emission-concentration relations behaved similar as found for SO2 (
While locally in the bay under inversion conditions, PM2.5 concentrations exceeded 35 μg・m−3 for several hours when one or two large cruise ships visited the bay on the same day, daily mean PM2.5 concentrations remained below the 24-hour average of 35 μg・m−3 of the NAAQS [
Comparison of season bay-wide mean profiles (
In REF and ALL, cruise ships increased the concentrations of aerosol precursor gases in the bay (see
In the first decameters above the surface, PM10 concentrations were low over the ice fields of Glacier Bay National Park (
In all four simulations, days with worst visibility conditions were due to meteorology. At the height of cruise ships, bay-wide daily means of haze indices were high when relative humidity exceeded 90% (
CLN, REF, RETRO, and ALL daily bay-wide mean haze indices were also correlated with wind speed (R = 0.462, 0.825, 0.864, and 0.826, respectively). The high correlation coefficients found for REF, RETRO and ALL supported that transport of pollutants from emissions outside of Glacier Bay affected visibility inside the bay (
Daily bay-wide mean REF and ALL haze indices as well as RETRO and ALL haze indices were highly correlated (R = 0.991 and 0.995, respectively), while CLN haze indices were notably lower correlated with REF, RETRO, and ALL haze indices (R = 0.750, 0.730, and 0.756, respectively). The correlation of REF, RETRO and ALL haze indices with those of CLN confirmed [
In the bay, locally absolute differences between REF and ALL hourly haze indices reached up to 19.6 dv. Thus, transport of pollutants from emissions outside the bay influenced hourly visibility at least locally. Seasonal mean maximum (minimum) haze indices differed 2.0 (~0) between REF and ALL. These findings suggest that anthropogenic emissions occurring outside of Glacier Bay had small influences on worst visibility conditions that were caused by meteorological conditions.
Comparison of CLN and ALL haze indices revealed the total anthropogenic impact on visibility in Glacier Bay. On season average, the combined anthropogenic emissions increased the haze index by about 2 dv over wide areas of the bay compared to the natural conditions (
For all trace-gas species and PM, the ESCRs to the ALL concentrations differed in space and time (e.g. Figures 7-11). The ESCRs also differed among species partly due to different spatial occurrences of their emissions and/or emissions of their precursors (cf.
the bay would be that the contribution from cruise-ships is highest in the bay, and the composition of pollutants inside and outside of the bay would differ.
On average over Southeast Alaska, in ALL, the majority of SO2 in the lower ABL stemmed
from cruise ship and anthropogenic emissions (e.g.
Southeast Alaska when several cruise ships were in the domain. Above the ABL, anthropogenic emissions contributed 10% or less to the daily mean SO2 concentrations.
Often chemical processes among pollutants from various sources reduced the ALL SO2 concentrations as compared to the concentrations expected from Equation (1). In the ABL, interaction of pollutants from different sources affected daily mean SO2 concentrations less than 10% most time on Southeast Alaska average (
At cruise-ship height, contributions from cruise ships remained below 30% in areas not travelled by cruise ships (
On season average, the impact of interaction peaked between about 60 and 200 m or so in areas where cruise ships occurred. Recall that the bulk of cruise-ship emissions occurred between these heights. In the first decameters above the surface, ALL seasonal mean SO2 concentrations were diminished by more than 4 and 5 ppt along the Alaska coast and over the waterways in the Alexander Archipelago, respectively, as compared to the values expected from Equation (1). Interaction reduced ALL seasonal mean SO2 concentrations by up to 10 ppt over the international shipping lane (southwestern corner of the model domain). Interaction enhanced seasonal mean ALL SO2 concentrations by more than 1 ppt over the southern part of the Coastal Mountains.
In the ABL, ALL daily and season Southeast Alaska mean NOx concentrations behaved similar to those of SO2 (Figures 7-9). At the top of the ABL, contributions by cruise-ship emissions to the SO2 and NOx concentrations in ALL were larger early in the season than in late summer and fall (
In Southeast Alaska, anthropogenic emissions other than from cruise ships and cruise- ship emissions contributed up to 40% and 30% to the daily regional mean NO2 concentrations (
Interaction of trace gases from other sources with NOx reduced ALL NOx concentrations by more than 10% over land along most of the Gulf of Alaska Coast, the international shipping lane, and the crossings of major highways (
However, over Canada in the lee of the Coastal Mountains, interaction enhanced ALL NOx concentrations locally by up to 3 ppt at heights between 1.9 and 2.9 km (not shown). Here, high reaching convection transported pollutants upward and out of the ABL. On the contrary, over water, the comparatively higher stability than over land restricted vertical mixing and exchange with aloft air. Consequently, interaction of pollutants from different sources was restricted to a lower height over water than land.
In some areas of Southeast Alaska, ALL NH3 concentrations were diminished by up to 10 ppt as compared to the values expected from Equation (1). In the first decameters over Sitka, for instance, NH3 interacted with reactive gases and aerosols from the various sources diminishing ALL NH3 concentrations by up to 10 ppt. Slight diminutions also occurred in the first decameters over some tidal glacier fjords outside Glacier Bay. Above that height, no significant interaction of pollutants from various sources with NH3 occurred.
In ALL, like in the other simulations, background O3 dominated the O3 concentrations (
In the first decameters above ground level, interaction of pollutants from the various emission sources increased ALL O3 concentrations up to 0.6 ppb over the southern part of the Alexander Archipelago. On the contrary, ALL O3 concentrations were diminished up to 0.9 ppb over Canada in the northeastern part of the model domain (not shown). The impact of interaction on ALL daily mean O3 concentrations was highest in the layers that received the bulk of cruise-ship emissions in areas where cruise ships were present (not shown). Above that height, the absolute magnitude of interaction decreased slightly with increasing height in these regions and Southeast Alaska wide (e.g.
On average, PAN depletion due to interaction increased up to 40 ppt landwards below 1 km above ground. Above this height, the general pattern remained, but with two orders reduced magnitude as compared to the layers below 1 km.
In Southeast Alaska, under clean background conditions (CLN), no PM10 with diameters greater than 2.5 μm occurred, i.e. all PM10 was PM2.5. Consequently, in ALL, PM10 exceeding 2.5 μm in diameter (coarse particles) stemmed from cruise ship and anthropogenic emissions, and/or particle growth by gas-to-particle conversion from precursor gases. In ALL, less than 10% of PM10 was PM2.5 on most days.
Interaction between the different anthropogenic and cruise-ship emissions affected PM type, size, and sedimentation. It diminished PM10 concentrations in the first decameters along the coast and in waterways (not shown). On season average, maximum diminution occurred west of Cross Sound (>8 μg・m−3). Interaction between pollutants from cruise-ship emissions and other sources decreased with height (
In Glacier Bay, ESCRs for the ALL seasonal and daily means of SO2, NOx, and PM10 concentrations showed distinct differences compared to those over Southeast Alaska (
In Glacier Bay, cruise-ship emissions contributed up to about 80% of the daily mean SO2 concentrations below 1 km on days with cruise-ship visits (
In Glacier Bay, highest contributions by cruise ships to the ALL NO2 concentrations occurred early in the season (
In Glacier Bay, anthropogenic sources other than cruise ships contributed to the SO2 and NOx concentrations marginally in the layers into which the cruise-ships emitted (e.g.
For O3 concentrations, cruise-ship emissions and advection of pollutants from other anthropogenic sources contributed less than 10% on average to the bay-wide daily mean (
The lower mean contribution of natural sources and background concentrations to PM over the bay (
The ESCRs indicated that advection of PM from outside of the bay was small most of the time. In Glacier Bay, interaction among pollutants from cruise ships and other sources diminished PM10 concentrations up to 2 μg・m−3 on season average (not shown). As expected, in Glacier Bay, interaction was strongest where cruise ships berthed in the layers receiving the bulk of the cruise-ship emissions. Lowest interaction occurred in areas without cruise-ship travel. Note that in the former and latter areas, diminution amounted up to 3.3 and 0.7 μg・m−3, respectively.
In Glacier Bay, interaction between pollutants from cruise-ship emissions and sources outside of the bay decreased with height for all species examined (
Due to thermodynamic reasons (Köhler curve), large water-soluble particles swell at lower relative humidity than the small ones [
The limits of managing air quality are set by the contribution of the emission sources under control to the total concentrations of the species. To assess the limits to which the National Park Service (NPS) can manage air quality within Glacier Bay we setup four WRF/Chem simulations that permitted calculation of emission-source contribution ratios (ESCRs). These simulations were performed over the length of the 2008 peak tourist season (May 15 to September 15). They only differed by the type of emissions considered 1) only biogenic emissions (CLN), 2) biogenic and cruise-ship emissions (REF), 3) biogenic and anthropogenic emissions except cruise-ship emissions (RETRO), and 4) biogenic and anthropogenic emissions including cruise-ship emissions (ALL). In this study, ALL represented the actual atmospheric composition over Southeast Alaska and Glacier Bay. Focus was on primary and secondary pollutants as well as particles related to cruise-ship emissions as the NPS can control the speed, number of entrances, among other things in Glacier Bay.
In general, in Southeast Alaska, the ESCRs to the ALL concentrations differed among species partly due to the spatial-temporal variability of their emission sources as well as meteorological conditions. For all species examined, interaction between pollutants from cruise-ship emissions and other anthropogenic sources decreased with height. Interaction became negligible above the top of the ABL except where convection transported pollutants into the free atmosphere.
Local sources governed air-quality in Southeast Alaska. Local emissions dominated the concentrations in the ABL around area sources like settlements including port cities, along line emission sources like waterways, shipping lanes, and major highways. In case of Glacier Bay, local sources were cruise ships and biogenic emissions.
In Southeast Alaska, all coarse PM (particles with diameters > 2.5, but ≤10 µm) was due to anthropogenic sources including cruise ships. Residential sources and cruise- ship emissions governed SO2 and PM10 concentrations in the coastal ABL of Southeast Alaska. Cruise-ship emissions contributed 30% to 50% to the ALL SO2 concentrations along the Alaska coast. Commercial shipping other than cruise ships governed the SO2 and PM10 concentrations in the maritime ABL over the international shipping lane. Here only 30% of the ALL SO2 was due to the natural background concentrations. In port cities, cruise ships were the main cause for the ALL SO2, NOx, NH3, and PM10 concentrations. In Canada, road traffic was the main contributor to the ALL NOx concentrations in the ABL. Non-linear interaction of pollutants from various emission sources contributed on average less than ±10% to the ALL NO2 concentrations in Southeast Alaska.
Below the ABL, the contributions of the various emission sources to daily mean concentrations of ALL SO2, NOx, and PM10 showed distinct differences between Southeast Alaska-wide and Glacier Bay bay-wide daily means.
In general, in Glacier Bay, the percent contribution of cruise-ship emissions to the concentrations varied with meteorological conditions. Highest percentage contributions from cruise ships occurred early in the season when inversions occurred more often than at the end of the season. Later in summer and fall, the number of cyclones increased vertical mixing with clean air from aloft thereby diluting the pollutants in the ABL.
In Glacier Bay, cruise-ship emissions typically contributed between 60% and 80% to the bay-wide daily mean NO2 concentrations below 1 km height on days with visits. On days without cruise-ship entrances, emissions from previous cruise-ships entrances explained 40% of the bay-wide daily mean ALL SO2 and NOx concentrations. Anthropogenic emissions other than those from cruise ships rarely contributed more than 10% to the daily mean PM10, SO2, and NOx concentrations in the ABL of Glacier Bay. Together these findings mean that air quality in Glacier Bay was governed by cruise-ship emissions most of the time. Thus, we conclude that there is potential for managing air quality at these times.
In Glacier Bay, for all contaminants, interaction was lowest in the areas without cruise-ship traffic and highest where cruise ships berthed for glacier viewing. Here, interaction enhanced the ALL NO2 concentrations by 4 to 8 ppt at heights between about 250 and 400 m. Interaction of precursor gases and particles from various sources diminished PM10 concentrations up to 2 μg・m−3 on season average. Like in Southeast Alaska, less than ±10% of the ALL NO2 concentrations below 1 km was due interaction of pollutants from various sources. Over the bay, interaction typically became marginal between 800 and 1100 m, which was typically about the height of the ABL. Above the ABL, background concentrations governed the mean SO2, NOx, NH3, VOC, and PM10 concentrations over the bay on most days.
Together, the findings suggest that the NPS may be able to effectively manage air quality within Glacier Bay at least on days with stagnant air conditions. Then, the air in the bay is nearly cut off from advection of pollutants from other sources and cruise- ship emissions, i.e. pollutants from local controllable sources, govern the magnitude and distribution of daily mean ALL SO2, NOx, NH3, and PM10 concentrations in the bay. During most other weather conditions, pollutants from other sources advected into the bay limited the margin to which the local cruise-ship emissions contribute to the overall concentrations. Since the NPS can impose emission-control measures (e.g. speed limits, low sulfur fuel, etc.), we conclude that the highest potential for managing air quality and hence visibility is under stagnant conditions in Glacier Bay.
We also conclude that managing local emissions does not necessarily equate to managing visibility because set emissions may or may not equate to haze and/or reduced visibility depending upon atmospheric composition and weather conditions. In Glacier Bay, worst visibility days were caused almost exclusively by meteorology. On season average, the combined anthropogenic emissions increased the haze index only by about 2 dv over wide areas of the bay as compared to the natural conditions. In fact, increases of about 1 dv or more occurred in ALL in areas of the bay that had no cruise-ship traffic, such as the eastern arm. This result suggests that pollutants from cruise-ship emissions in the bay can cause about the same degradation of visibility as pollutants advected from outside the bay. Consequently, we conclude that emission-control measures do not lead automatically to improved visibility.
The results showed that all coarse particles were due to anthropogenic emissions. Due to thermodynamic reasons (Köhler curve), coarse water-soluble particles swell at lower relative humidity than the fine ones. Coarse particles reduce visibility and explain some of the 2 dv mean reduction in visibility in ALL as compared to CLN. Thus, demanding filters or scrubbers to reduce the emissions of coarse particles could delay the onset of swelling towards comparatively higher relative humidity and finer particles than required for swelling of coarse particles.
Reducing NOx emissions and/or use of low sulfur fuel would be indirect emission- control measures that target precursor gases of particle formation. Since gas-to-particle conversion takes time, such measures may be only beneficial during long stagnant conditions when the air remains in the bay and pollutants accumulate underneath inversions. However, such implementation would require forecasting long stagnant conditions several days ahead of time to maximize the effect.
Finally, we caution that our results focus on air quality from the perspective of daily or season average air quality and visibility conditions, i.e. they are not based on specific management goals. Such goals may include thresholds when haze is produced due to ship traffic. We also caution that the deposition of pollutants can affect or even alter park ecosystems if they accumulate in organisms and/or alter the pH-value of water, snow and soil water. Particle accumulations on glaciers, particularly in the form of black carbon, can also affect the radiation budget and local climate. Thus, while we conclude that the air quality is generally high in Glacier Bay, and propensity for haze production and thus reduced visibility typically occurs only under certain conditions such as strong inversions and/or high relative humidity, the impacts of pollutants from cruise-ship emissions can occur in a myriad of other ways that were beyond the scope of the study.
The authors thank G. Kramm, and the anonymous reviewers for fruitful discussions, the UAF GI RCS for computational, and the National Park Service for financial (contract P11AT30883/P11AC90465) support.
Mölders, N. and Gende, S. (2016) On the Limits to Manage Air-Quality in Glacier Bay. Journal of Environmental Protection, 7, 1923-1955. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jep.2016.712151