Bolivian Observatory collects data as the glaciers melt.
Bolivian Observatory collects data as the glaciers melt.
The snow seems to be pristine in the Andean peaks that hover over the capital of Bolivia, but even here the ash and smog reach a remote plateau that houses the highest atmospheric observatory in the world.
It is an ideal site for a team of international scientists who collect data on pollution that has contributed to the rapid disappearance of Andean glaciers.
The investigation at the Chacaltaya station, which is 17,192 feet (5,240 meters) above sea level, has a pressing urgency: the retreat of the glaciers, aggravated by global warming, threatens the main source of fresh water for the residents of the nearby cities of El Alto and La Paz - and the crops they depend on.
"If temperatures continue to rise, these tall glaciers will also lose their mass of ice and there will only be snow on the top," said glaciologist Patrick Ginot. "This will happen throughout the Andes."
Last year, Ginot was part of a team of scientists who transported chunks of ice from a Bolivian glacier to Antarctica to preserve them for posterity and future study as part of a global project called "Memory of Ice."
Chacaltaya station is an important place to collect data samples, partly because of its location on the remains of a glacier. The glacier, believed to be about 18,000 years old, once served as the site of Bolivia's only ski resort before it melted a decade ago.
Initially, the station was launched as a cosmic ray observatory in the mid-1940s, when the mere act of transporting heavy scientific instruments in the back of the flames was a feat in itself. But the altitude and location of Chacaltaya near the Amazon region, and its proximity to the capital city of Bolivia, eventually led scientists to obtain information on the pollution generated by the burning of forests, coal, oil and gas.
In 2012, the site became an atmospheric station used to measure greenhouse gases, reactive gases and particles that can extend into the Pacific Ocean hundreds of miles away. Its altitude is only rivaled by a station recently built by China on the Quinhai-Tibet plateau near Mt. The Everest that is at 17,060 feet (5,200 meters).
Chacaltaya, which means 'Camino Frío' in Aymara, is financed and administered jointly by groups from the United States and Europe, and the initiative is led by the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz.
James Butler, head of the global monitoring division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that the samples taken and the observations made "are not influenced by local emissions or similar influences."
"Observations up from the top of a mountain also provide a much better picture of changes in the stratosphere than observations of lower elevations, because interference in the signal is greatly reduced," he said.
Fernando Velarde, a physicist who works at the observatory, said the data is shared with the international community.
"As scientists, we take a problem, we study its effects and we try to give answers to society," he said. "But final decisions are in the hands of governments and politicians."
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