Student Exchange Experiment in the Bolivian Andes

A student focused field campaign that occurred in the Bolivian Andes in May, 2022 has previously been reported (Whiteman et al, 2023 a,b,c). Here we detail the continuation and augmentation of those student-focused activities involving a different cohort of students. Under joint support of the Fulbright Foundation and the US Embassy in La Paz, a group of four students from the U. S. traveled to La Paz, Bolivia in July, 2023 to engage in scientific and cultural exchange activities with eight Bolivian students and their corresponding mentors. The scientific goal of the program was to involve all students in the planning, execution and analysis of a field measurement campaign to quantify the flow of pollutants from the city of La Paz toward the Global Atmosphere Watch station located at Mt. Chacaltaya (CHC, the world’s highest elevation GAW site at 5.2 km), approximately 22 km from the center of La Paz (elevation of 3.6 km). This region has a complicated topography with high altitudinal gradients that poses a challenge for understanding different atmospheric processes. Planning of the experiment was accomplished through virtual meetings held for several weeks prior to the arrival of the U.S. students in July, 2023. Five different measurement stations were established for this year’s implementation of the student experiment as opposed to the three stations deployed last year. Analysis of the measurements is on-going as part of an academic course offered at the Universidad Mayor de San Andres and led by the first author as part of his Fulbright U. S. Scholar Fellowship. The goal of those analyses is to attempt to quantify the transport of pollutants among the various stations by studying pollutant concentrations and wind flows. The academic course is being taught in English and will focus on both data analysis and conference style oral and written presentations to help prepare the Bolivian students for participation in international conferences. Cultural exchange was an important goal of this activity which was furthered through homestay accommodations in La Paz for the U.S. students and excursions both inside and out of La Paz together with the Bolivian students.

At the conference we will review the goals of the experiment and what improvements were made to address deficiencies found in the measurements conducted in 2022. The current status of the student-led data analysis will be provided and plans for future activities will be discussed.

Acknowledgments

This effort was supported by the US Department of State through the Fulbright Foundation's US Scholar’s program and through program support from the US Embassy in La Paz. The student co-authors listed above are those that were involved in the planning and execution of the field campaign. We would also like to acknowledge those students who are taking the academic course at UMSA and thus are helping to analyze the data acquired during the campaign. Many thanks to Adrian Acarapi, Katia Brigida, Valeria Burgoa, Alan Callaú, Román Chino, Ludving Fernandez, Kenzo Yoshihara, Ariel Garcia, Franco Garcia, Samantha Lobatón, Belen Peñaloza, Ronald Valero.

References

1. Whiteman, D. N., Howard University, Washington, DC; and M. Andrade, R. Forno, R. Mamani-Paco, I. Moreno, F. Velarde, L. Blacutt, R. Gutierrez, F. Avila, M. Pozadas, D. Guzman, R. Peltier, A. Ajayi, V. Burgoa, A. Callau, Y. B. Chambi, F. Garcia, S. Lobaton, H. Oke, F. Okunuga, B. Penaloza, M. A. Rivera, M. Watson, S. Reid, and H. Zou, AMS 2023, https://ams.confex.com/ams/103ANNUAL/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/410321
2. Whiteman, D. N., K. Boateng, S. Harbison, H. Oke, A Rappaport, M. Watson, A. Ajayi, O. Okunuga, R. Forno, M. Andrade, Breakdown of a Nocturnal Inversion Measured with a Low-Cost Tethersonde System: a High School Student Experiment, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, print publication Feb 1, 2023, online publication March 2, 2023, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-21-0150.1
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