Observations of Windblown Dust Transportation Hazards along I-10 Using a Network of Sensors

Observations of Windblown Dust Transportation Hazards Along I-10 Using a Network of Sensors

David DuBois, Jaylen Fuentes

New Mexico Climate Center

Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences

New Mexico State University

Las Cruces, NM

Vic Etyemezian and George Nikolich

Division of Atmospheric Sciences

Desert Research Institute

Las Vegas, NV

Abstract

The research we are currently conducting targets dust storms which are usually triggered by thunderstorm outflows occurring along Interstate Ten and producing low or zero visibility for drivers between Lordsburg, New Mexico and the Arizona state line. I-10 experiences heavy traffic at all times from commercial trucks transporting goods and passenger vehicles travelling across the United States. The amount of traffic travelling along I-10 combined with occasional dust storms has led to multiple fatalities on this highway in the past. The stretch of highway experiencing these dust events and tragic accidents is located in the middle of the Lordsburg Playa which is a historic lake bed with scarce vegetation in some areas and no vegetation in most areas. The New Mexico Department of Transportation and New Mexico State University have teamed up to mitigate this issue by installing several different types of ground-based observations such as weather stations, particle profilers, particle counters, and time-lapse cameras. The weather station actively deployed on the playa collects one-minute data for temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind gust, wind direction, and rain amount. The MetOne 212 particle profilers are set up at two different heights to imitate what the average car sees compared to what the commercial truck sees in a dust event. These profilers collect one-minute data for dust particles ranging from PM-2.5 to PM-10. There is also a Desert Research Institute 5 station SANTRI wireless sensor network in the field which yield dust particle counts at two different heights. Lastly, we have a time-lapse camera network to view dust storms occurring. Using our entire sensor network, we can identify dust events by comparing particle counts and weather station data to actual images of dust events. We will be adding more dust sensors to the playa and hope to develop an early warning system from our network that will aid in traffic safety along I-10. In this presentation, we will be focusing on wind-blown dust events which occurred during the monsoon season of 2018.