LOCALadk Magazine

49 Winter 2016 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk Climate change is quickly becoming an issue of great concern and debate for the public – as it has been in the environmental com- munity for many years. An important first step in understanding climate change is to identify and quantify the drivers of climate change: to ask, "What is changing about our climate, and what effect might those changes have?" In helping to answer this question, one of the greatest but most untapped assets at the ASRC is the extensive long-term data re- cord that exists for both the Lodge and Summit sites. Meteoro- logical data has been collected at the summit since the 1930s and at the Lodge since the 1940s. The continuous surface ozone measurements at Whiteface Mountain since 1973 provide one of the longest ozone records available in North America. Previ- ous studies involving the impacts of acid rain on nutrient cycling, soil chemistry and forest productivity have also been conducted using the acidic deposition and cloud chemistry datasets. These long-term data also contribute to Adirondack climate change as- sessment, the effects of these changes, and how these effects might interact with other environmental changes, including acid rain, invasive species and human land use. These long term data sets are often difficult to locate, and we are in the process of identifying both published and unpublished research that has taken place at Whiteface Mountain. The ASRC Whiteface Mountain Field Station has also been selected as a site host for the New York State Mesonet nysmesonet.org. A mesonet is a particular type of observing net- work, with weather stations spaced close enough together to adequately sample mesoscale weather. Meso refers to weather phenomena that range in size from less than a mile to hundreds of miles long and last a few minutes to hours. The idea of a mesonet, a network of weather stations, is nothing new, and scientists have long known its value. The first mesonet was deployed hundreds of years ago, with weather stations lo- cated across much of central Europe. Data was collected with hand-held instruments, with the results gathered by mail. For- tunately, today's technology permits real-time data collection throughout the depth of the atmosphere. The New York State Mesonet will ultimately consist of 126 state- of-the-art environmental monitoring stations, and will serve as the foundation of an Early Warning Severe Weather Detection network for the entire State of New York. Mesonet sites will be distributed statewide, with every county across New York hav- ing one or more sites. The Mesonet will provide local, updated weather information in real-time 24/7 to government, academ- ic, and private sector partners, as well as to the general public. The Mesonet was designed and developed by research scientists at SUNY Albany's Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, and through collaboration with the Oklahoma Mesonet. Another important aspect of the ASRC Whiteface Mountain Field Station is the proximity of the research station to a major tourist destination. The Veterans Memorial highway is visited by thou- sands of tourists annually. These tourists come from all over the world and all walks of life. For many of these individuals, a visit to Whiteface Mountain provides a unique opportunity to expe- rience a high-elevation montane ecosystem in a largely unmodi- fied condition. The opportunity to educate and inform the public about the atmospheric monitoring and research activities being conducted at the Field Station is critical in promoting scientifi- cally sound public policy. In 2012, several new exhibits explaining the science being conducted at the summit of Whiteface Moun- tain, as well as the flora, fauna and natural history of the region, were developed and installed by The Wild Center in cooperation with multiple partners, including the Adirondack North Country Association, the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Olympic Regional Devel- opment Authority, the NYS Department of Transportation and the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center. The exhibits include interpretive signage, interactive time lapse video, instrumenta- tion displays, real time weather data, National Weather Service maps and radar, and video segments explaining some of the re- search being conducted at Whiteface. A new high-resolution real time web camera was installed on the Whiteface Observatory silo, and can be accessed via the Wild Center at wildcenter.org/ summitcam/wfsummit.jpg. Such public outreach efforts help to fulfill an important part of the ASRC mission to enhance funda- mental understanding of the chemical and physical nature of the atmosphere.

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