Abstract

ANDRADE, M et al. Set to work of a new climate monitoring station in the central andes of Bolivia: the Gaw/Chacaltaya station. Revista Boliviana de Física [online]. 2015, vol.26, n.26, pp.06-15. ISSN 1562-3823.

A new regional station (CHC/GAW for short) of the Global Atmosphere Watch, which is part of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), was set to work in December 2011 at mount Chacaltaya (5400 masl). The purpose of this station is to monitor the atmospheric composition of the region, especially the greenhouse effect gases, reactive gases and particle material which is carried to the medium troposphere and to (or from the ) free troposphere. To this purpose, a consortium of European and American institutions set up various instruments in the Cosmic Ray Laboratory (Institute of Physical Investigations, Universidad Mayor de San Andrs, UMSA, La Paz, Bolivia). From its set to work up to now the CHC/GAW has worked continuously with few interruptions, almost all of them related to lightings. The first results corresponding to the 2012-2013 period are reported in this document. The transport of particle material (which results from the burning of vegetal biomass) is clearly visible from the data. The effect of pollution produced in the metropolitan region of La Paz (which is near to the station but at a much less altitude) is also clearly visible in the daily data and in longer time averages. These data suggest that the station is located in the free troposphere, especially at night, while during day time the advection of hot air (due to the warming of the surface and to the increase of turbulent processes) carry particle material and gases to Chacaltaya due to the enhancement of the planet boundary layer. A behavior associated to the dry and humid seasons is also evident in the data.

Keywords : Properties and dynamics of the atmosphere; Tropospheric composition and chemistry; constituent transport and chemistry; National and international laboratory facilities.

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