Student Training Experiment in the Bolivian Andes

Field campaigns focused on student outreach and training were staged in the Bolivian Andes in May, 2022 and July, 2023 and have previously been reported (Whiteman et al, 2023 a,b 2024 a,b). Here we detail the continuation of those activities in July, 2024 involving a new cohort of 11 Bolivian students. The scientific goal of the program was to involve all students in the planning, execution and analysis of a field measurement campaign the goal of which was 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 5240 msl), approximately 22 km from the center of La Paz (elevation of 3600 msl). These pollutants can accelerate the melting of snow pack and glaciers, which are significant sources of freshwater for the population. The La Paz region has a complicated topography with high altitudinal gradients that pose challenges for understanding different atmospheric processes although the previous measurements indicated that targeted field campaigns using simple instrumentation can measure key physical processes relating to pollution transport. On July 31, 2024, three closely spaced measurement stations were instrumented for this year’s campaign in an effort to quantify the transport of pollutants along a canyon leading toward Mt. Chacaltaya. 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 academic course is being taught in English and will focus on both data analysis and conference style oral presentations to help prepare the Bolivian students for participation in international conferences. Participation in this field campaign has also been shown to increase student interest in other activities of the Laboratory for Atmospheric Physics at UMSA as well as in pursuing the study of atmospheric physics.

At the conference we will review the goals of the experiment and the findings from previous campaigns before providing updated results from the 2024 campaign. 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 US Scholar’s program. We are grateful to the US Embassy in La Paz for their continuing support of these activities. The student co-authors are those that were involved in the planning and execution of the field campaign and who have taken an academic course at UMSA following the campaign that focused on the analysis of the campaign data.

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
3. Whiteman, David N., Marcos Andrade, Ricardo Forno, Rubén Mamani-Paco, Isabel Moreno, Fernando Velarde, Luis Blacutt , Rene Gutierrez, Fabricio Avila, Monica Pozadas, Decker Guzman, Richard Peltier, Micaela Beltran, Wara Carvajal, Theodore Daniels, Ruvens Angola, Estela Gianella, Nehemiah Gray, Dorian Lima, Ayanna Mann, Kendra Nktesiah, Audrey Rappaport, Ramiya Shelton, Ronald Valero, Noelia Villavicencio, Diego Villca, https://ams104annual.ipostersessions.com/default.aspx?s=44-40-43-B9-10-7B-65-19-26-90-93-24-B2-DA-19-03&guestview=true
4. Whiteman, David N., Marcos Andrade, Ricardo Forno, Rubén Mamani-Paco, Isabel Moreno, Fernando Velarde, Luis Blacutt, Rene Gutierrez, Fabricio Avila, Monica Pozadas, Decker Guzman, Richard Peltier, Adrian Acarapi, Ayomiposi Ajayi, Valeria Burgoa, Alan Callaú, Yahuar Benjamin Chambi, Franco Garcia, Samantha Lobatón, Hadijat Oke, Fisayo Okunuga, Belen Peñaloza, Marco Antonio Rivera, Monique Watson, Shayla Reid, Hoven Zou, ^“Bolivian/U.S Student Atmospheric Field Campaign in the Bolivian Andes”, accepted to Revista de Fisica Boliviana, 2024.