Denali’s squeaky-clean air best among all U.S. national parks

Fairbanks air turns bitter every winter as Alaskans fill it with wood smoke and other things, but just down the road Denali National Park has the clearest air measured among America’s monitored national parks.

Scientists at Colorado State University have taken a close look at Denali air as captured near the park entrance. A monitor there pulls air through a set of four filters, getting samples every third day. A park employee then mails the filters to the Lower 48.

Scientists studied the particles less than 2.5 micrometers in size trapped at the Denali station from 1988 to 2013. It takes dozens of specks that size to bridge the width of a human hair, but they combine to reduce visibility and are small enough to make it past our noses into our lungs. Due to its temperature inversions and 100,000 people staying warm in the subarctic, Fairbanks has a problem with a buildup of particle matter. Denali is squeaky clean by comparison, but Bian found a few invaders that drifted through the gates.

Bits of burned tundra and trees show up in the filters in summertime, especially years such as 2004, when wildfires burned an area in Alaska the size of Vermont. Sea salt from the northwest coast and other areas finds its way to the park in winter, when there are high winds, low temperatures and some open water.

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