FLINT HILLS HISTORY
1.) Title Page
2.) Research Team
3.) About 245 million years ago, the Flint Hills were birthed as limestone and shale began
to erode. The region gets its name from the fact that it contains high amounts of the
mineral chert, also known as flint. As the limestone erodes away, there is a layer of
gravelly soil, rich with flint and other minerals, that is left behind. Because of this, the
Flint Hills make a much more suitable range for ranching rather than farming. Explain
slide #4
5.) In order to maintain high-quality forage for grazing, annual prescribed burns are
implemented. As you can see in this satellite image taken in April of 2003, the burning,
shown by the darker regions, can be quite extensive. It is a beneficial process because it
eliminates weeds and invasive woody plants, as well as clears out dead, uneaten grass and
organic material. This is a method that has been used in the region since before it was
explored by Lewis and Clark. In 1814, Meriwether Lewis noted in his journal as they
explored across what is now the Flint Hills, the Native Americans would burn the
grasslands to provide the buffalo with food.
6.) Explain picture
7.) As one can imagine, swarms of complaints emerge from the urban areas as the
burning swings into full force around March and April of every year. Towns are often
blanketed with haze and one can always catch a whiff of smoke when walking outside.
However, the aesthetic of the city is not the only thing that is compromised. With a little
common sense, one can probably imagine that when the emissions from the burning enter
the atmosphere, it affects the pollution levels. Two of the primary concerns associated
with biomass burning emissions in the Flint Hills are the affects on Ozone and
atmospheric particulate pollution levels.
8.) While there are other, more complex processes of ozone formation, the prerequisites
of the most basic ozone formation are nitrogen oxides, solar radiation, and preexisting
ozone.
9.) Explain graphic on slide
10.) Read Slide
11.) The creation and dispersal of pollution is affected by a large number of
meteorological variables. Because of this, it is preferable to use a synoptic weather
typing method that incorporates the widest range of factors possible.
12.) There are three main systems of synoptic weather typing: manual, automated, and
hybrid systems. The first is the manual system. The manual system is often done by
hand for a specific region by looking at historical weather maps. It is beneficial because
the investigator is in complete control of the classification. However, this method can be
very time consuming and is left to the interpretation of the investigator.
13.) The second system that is commonly used is the automated system. These systems
use a wide array of mathematical equations and algorithms to determine the most likely
weather types that fall within certain criteria for particular regions. While the automated
systems are much less time consuming, they can only be applied to one station or climate
region at a time.
14.) That brings us to the type of system we use in our analysis. It would only make
sense to take the best of both techniques and combine them to form what is called the
hybrid system. That is what the Spatial Synoptic Classification, or SSC, system is. It
determines typical weather patterns associated with climate regions and each season of
the year and classifies them into six major weather types based on what are called “Seed
Days.”
15.) A seed day is a day that exemplifies the typical meteorological characteristics of a
particular weather type in that climate region during the seasonal window. The SSC
defines the minimum and maximum values specific to climate region for six parameters
and categorizes the daily weather patterns into weather types based on this analysis.
16.) For the Kansas City region, some patterns in the seasonal air masses that we can see
are the increase in the frequency of the tropical air masses from March, indicated by the
bottom purple layer on this graph, to June and the general decrease in the polar air
masses.
17.) Here, the air masses are listed in order of total frequency and broken down into each
month.
18.) To investigate the effect of air masses on regional pollution levels, a Chi squared test
was used. The results show that for gases, ozone was the only gas significantly affected
by air mass type. As you can see, the tropical air masses are associated with significantly
high levels of ozone and the polar air masses correlate with low levels of ozone.
19.) For particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in aerodynamic diameter, the only
air mass that had a significant impact on pollution levels was the dry polar air mass.
20.) Shows the averages of ozone and PM 2.5 together with the air masses.
21.) To test the accuracy of the results, April 2003 was used for a control because of
extreme circumstances. In the Spring of 2003, the Flint Hills region was in a drought
which caused the Fire Marshal to impose a burning ban. However, just prior to April
10th, according to an EPA report, a small yet sufficient amount of precipitation was
received that allowed the burn ban to be temporarily lifted. Because of this, a large
amount of burning occurred in a small amount of time and caused the ozone levels in
Kansas City to exceed the ozone standards.
22.) Along with intense burning, as shown by the red dots, a low pressure system formed
on the leeside of the Rockies (CLICK) at the same time that an anti-cyclonic stationary
front formed in the Michigan, Illinois region (CLICK). The combined effect of this was
that it reduced the ability of the smoke plume, shown in gray, to disperse properly and
caused it to accumulate over the Kansas City metro area.
23.) When we look at the SSC weather type data for this time period, as we predicted we
would see, the high levels of both ozone and PM 2.5 are associated with tropical air mass
types.
24.) To summarize, rangeland burning in the Flint Hills is a necessity for ranchers.
However, it increases regional air pollution which has created a rising concern. One of
the points of this study was to develop a climatology of pollution associated with biomass
burning.
25.) We found that there is significant correlation between certain air mass types and high
and low levels of ozone and PM 2.5. As the previous figures show, high levels of ozone
are generally associated with tropical air masses and low levels of ozone and PM 2.5 are
associated with polar air masses.
26.) So in the end, who is at fault? What should be restricted: the essential burning that
takes place in order to maintain healthy grassland ecosystems, or the activities that take
place in urban areas and are responsible for industrial productivity, as well as the
transportation of urban residents? All I can say is that I am grateful that deciding the
answers to questions like these is specifically NOT one of the goals of this study.
I would like to end by reading a quote written by Carl Sauer in 1950.
“Fire, or its elimination, is still a main problem in the applied total ecology by which
western foresters and graziers must attempt to work out a durable modus vivendi for man
in a non-static environment. The layman can only hope for them that they may resolve
this difficult and delicate situation by being permitted to take the longest possible view of
beneficial activity by man.”