Paulo Fialho, Ph. D.
Professor of Chemistry at Azores University
Research Gate Profile
Dr. Fialho is a founding collaborator of the Pico Mountain Observatory. He has been measuring black carbon at the site since 2001.
Dr. Fialho is the primary point of contact for activities at the Pico Mountain Observatory.
We recently published a technical paper in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics about the composition of long-range transported aerosol observed at the Pico Mountain Observatory. This work represents a novel perspective on the composition of free tropospheric aerosol. We believe this work is significant because it challenges the current understanding of aerosol aging. Although aerosol are oxidized with respect to time in the atmosphere, the long-lived aerosol observed here appear to represent the fraction of aerosol which is not easily removed.
To learn more please see: Dzepina et al., ACP, 2015.
Sometimes our work at the Pico Mountain Observatory is both mentally and physically challenging, but it is always rewarding. Since we arrived almost two weeks ago, the weather has been fairly uncooperative. We had a few days of warm sunshine, kindly reminding us of why we are here, “to sample the air of the marine free troposphere far away from direct emission sources”. From our previous work at this remote location, we recently published two technical papers about our observations of soot morphology and aerosol chemistry. These technical observations inform the scientific community about the effects of long-range transport on the aerosol mainly from North America.
This year’s fieldwork is now underway and just as we picked up some momentum, the weather became difficult to predict. This means, that sometimes we will not be able to do our work upon reaching the Observatory and sometimes traversing up and down the mountain is dangerous and especially so with high winds and rain. This year is particularly special, because we are hosting a guest scientist from Trento Italy, who’s planning to collect some very special mountain profile measurements by carrying several small instruments on his back. Thus, sitting in the apartment and waiting for ideal conditions is absolutely out of the question.
Continue reading Mountaineering for Science
Kendra Wright, Lorentyna Harkness , Claudio Mazzoleni e Lynn Mazzoleni foram entrevistados por David Borges, um repórter de um jornal local em Madalena, em julho de 2013. Aqui está a história jornal que resultou da nossa conversa.
Publicado em 16 de agosto de 2013 (English Version Available)
Escrito por David Borges
A Universidade Tecnológica do Michigan, com o apoio da Fundação Nacional de Ciência, do Departamento de Energia dos Estados Unidos e da NASA, está a desenvolver dois novos projetos na estação Pico Nare instalada no topo da montanha do Pico para estudar o efeito climático dos aerossóis. Os projetos, com dois e três anos de duração, baseiam-se no estudo das propriedades químicas e também das características óticas das partículas como a cor e a forma que determinam a sua interação com a luz solar.
Na estação colocada desde 2001 na cratera da montanha os especialistas esperam observar aerossóis provenientes do continente americano, resultantes por exemplo do fumo de grandes incêndios localizados sobretudo na parte norte do continente, com origem no Canadá e/ou Estados Unidos da América.
Continue reading Ilha Maior Artigo de Jornal – Portuguese Versão
The Pico Mountain Observatory team leaders: Lynn Mazzoleni, Claudio Mazzoleni Detlev Helmig and Paulo Fiahlo were interviewed by Nature News reporter Alexandra Witze in October 2014. Here’s a link to the Nature News story, titled: Atlantic Observatory Faces Rocky Future.
Lynn and Claudio Mazzoleni were interviewed by Kevin Hodur for the 2015 Michigan Tech Research Magazine article.
Here’s an excerpt of the story.
Written by Kevin Hodur
Deep in the eastern Atlantic, roughly 900 miles west of Portugal, lies the tiny island of Pico. On maps, it looks like nothing— hardly more than a pinpoint in a sea of blue. But to atmospheric researchers, the remote island’s towering Pico Mountain holds the key to understanding how aerosols may impact climate change.
Pico Mountain is one of nine volcanic islands that make up the Azores archipelago. Its size, however, sets it apart: at nearly 8,000 feet, it’s one of the highest mountains in the Atlantic and more than twice the elevation of neighboring peaks. To hike to the top is to enter an entirely new world, up in the clouds.
It is the high altitude—along with Pico Mountain’s isolated Atlantic location—that make it the ideal place to study aerosols. These high-in-the-sky aerosol particles are what interest Michigan Tech researchers. For years, they have worked with collaborators to sample particles atop the peak at the Pico Mountain Observatory, learning more about the sources and characteristics of aerosols. These aerosols have a large but not completely understood influence on our atmosphere.