Air Quality in Great Salt Lake May Turn Hazardous Due to Pollution

Air quality planning organizations in the United States In their ozone pollution evaluations, the Great Lakes area now includes high-resolution NASA satellite data and near real-time Earth observations. It's challenging to create models that precisely forecast the intricate lake and land winds around Lake Michigan's shores.

Where Seas Die And Earthquakes Are Born - The Southern Tip of the San Andreas Fault — CALIPATRIA, CA - JANUARY 01: Mud is seen on land that was under the Salton Sea a few years ago on January 1, 2019 near Calipatria, California, United States. Scientists believe that the southern portion of the San Andreas Fault will inevitably give birth to a massive earthquake, bigger than any that has occurred in Southern California in modern history. On top of the fault lies a rift lake, the Salton Sea, which is the latest in a series of great lakes to form then dry up with the changing course of the Colorado River throughout geologic history. The changing weight of these lakes is thought to have had a regulating effect by triggering periodic approximately magnitude 7 earthquakes to relieve built up tectonic pressures. That process stalled when the Colorado River was tamed by technology in the early 1900's and pressure is building. The current Salton Sea, California's biggest lake, formed when an irrigation engineering project accident in 1905 allowed the Colorado River to flood into the Salton Sink and form the body of water that would become more visited than Yosemite Valley in the mid- 20th Century. It also became one of the most important stops for migrating birds in the North America. Now the increasingly salty water has killed most of the fish that millions of birds, such as white pelicans and eared grebes that make up 80 to 95 percent of the Western populations have relied on. The sea has spiraled into ecological collapse and is drying up after decades of debate and insufficient action have failed to stop it. The demise of the lake is now accelerating since some water that would normally flow into the sea has been sold to coastal cities. Photo by David McNew/Getty Images for Lumix

Still, it's also critical to understand how ozone pollution circulates in the region.

Peculiar Weather Conditions

The peculiar weather of the Lake Michigan shoreline can result in areas of elevated ground-level ozone levels. Emissions from vehicles, trucks, fossil-fuel power plants, and other sources contribute to the production of this air pollutant. Local and federal officials also keep an eye on it, as states are required to "attain," or satisfy, federal air quality standards.

"Our member states are dealing with multiple non-attainment sites in our region that are breaching federal ozone requirements," said Zac Adelman, the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium's executive director (LADCO). "This technology is currently operational, and we're utilizing it for policy purposes - we're actively using the modeling tools produced via this project to mimic mitigation activities and guide state attainment plans."

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Major Collaboration

Great Lakes — Scott Olson via Getty Images

This NASA-funded project collaborated with LADCO and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) to develop a modeling tool that includes satellite data for ozone monitoring activities to ensure that the appropriate data was in the right hands and the right format. Adelman believes this is critical for increasing trust in policy decisions to reduce ozone pollution. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provide data.

"It's extremely wonderful to watch how LADCO has run with these resources and how involved they've been throughout the process," said Otkin.

Importance of the Study

Adelman of LADCO concurred. "This study helps us add value to the meteorological and air quality models we use to support state decisions, making it simpler for us to assist our member states in assessing ozone levels and meeting federal pollution regulations," Adelman said.

NASA also offers additional Earth measurements that impact the complex ecosystem around the Great Lakes and wind and weather. These include high-resolution data on soil moisture and temperature from NASA's Land Information System and from NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission and NOAA sources such as the GOES satellite series.

NASA's Health and Air Quality project team built on previous work in the area, including a 2017 study focused on local ozone air quality near Lake Michigan and a recent campaign to map ozone hotspots around the Great Lakes to evaluate the effectiveness of these complex computer models of the Great Lakes regions.

Using this aerial perspective, the project team collaborated with local air quality partners at LADCO to run their model to increase simulation accuracy, allowing for more exact action assessments.

Actively Updating Models

Working directly with end users has allowed the team to actively update the modeling process as LADCO tests these maps in real time. Otkin and his colleagues have monthly technical meetings with LADCO and quarterly meetings with WDNR to fine-tune the system now that it is operational.

"The most productive collaborations are ones in which you engage with the user, incorporate their comments, and provide them a fully operating solution that's genuinely suited for their requirements," Pierce explained. That's what we were able to achieve here - LADCO has been as active a participant in the study as we have been, a true collaborator."

According to Adelman, the findings suggest that LADCO's member states may reliably develop ways to meet federal ozone regulations for the foreseeable future. He said that LADCO's member states are relying on more precise projections from NASA Earth observations when their official plans to combat ozone and fulfill state-specific air quality targets are due to the Environmental Protection Agency in 2023.