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Welcome to the Mount Gibbes Research Station webpage. Currently the experiment station is not operational, however please read on to learn about the robust research opportunities that this site offers. Please feel free to email Dr. Nicholas Meskhidze with any questions regarding future research topics.Top
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Views from Mount Gibbes Research Station
The Mount Gibbes Research Station is a site owned and maintained by North Carolina State University (NCSU) located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. The site is located at 35.78º N and 82.29º W at an elevation of 2,006 meters (6,581 feet) above sea level (asl) and is located in Mount Mitchell State Park. According to the National park service, Mount Mitchell State Park is located twenty miles northeast of Asheville in Yancey County. Mount Mitchell peak is located at 35° 44′ 05" N, 82° 17′ 15" W and has an elevation of 2,038 meters (6,686 feet) above sea level. It is the highest mountain in the eastern half of the United States and the state park has the most extensive stand of Fraser's fir remaining in America. Thirty year normals are available from the State Climate Office of North Carolina for an active cooperative observing site at Mount Mitchell. For other meteorological and climatological information please feel free to contact them at 919-515-3056 or by emailing them at sco@climate.ncsu.edu Top
The elevation and location of the experiment station at Mount Gibbes makes it ideal for a number of possible research topics. The site is ideal for in-situ cloud measurements because seven out of ten days during the summer they have a cloud event (Saxena et al. 1989). The site is also distinct because it is influenced by a variety of airmasses. Airmasses which have been detected and used in past studies include: relatively clean Great Plains continental air, polluted Ohio River valley region air, and clean maritime air (Saxena and Yeh 1988). The site is also ideal for long range transport of natural and anthropogenic aerosols because it is often located in the free troposphere and has no local source of pollution (Menon et al. 2000). The location of the experiment site high in the Appalachian Mountains offers a number of unique research opportunities in agriculture, geology, and meteorology, specifically atmospheric chemistry and aerosol research.Most recently a study about the interaction between aerosol particles and clouds was conducted by NASA at Mount
The Blue Ridge mountain region is characterized by a variety of plant species. The vegetation at the summit (1.8 km asl and above) of Mount Gibbes consists of mainly Frasier fir trees. The vegetation below the summit, or about 1.5 km to 1.8 km, is a mix of fir and red spruce trees. Below 1.5 km the vegetation is mainly hardwood forests which include American chestnut, oaks, and hickories. This lower area also exhibits thickets of Rhododendrons near forest streams. Due to the large variety of vegetation found here, Mount Gibbes is an excellent place to study a wide variety of Biogenic Volatile Organic Carbons (BVOCs). According to the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation, the flora on Mount Mitchell itself is one of the most diverse in the Southern Appalachians. The state park boasts the greatest collection of rare animal and plant species in the N.C. park system. As the Fraser Fir, the dominant flora type in the area, are lost, other plant species have filled in the void. These trees include red spruce, fire cherry, yellow birch, mountain ash, and mountain maple. Types of smaller, native flora inhabit the area such as blueberry, mountain raspberry, red elder, and bush honeysuckle produce blossoms and pleasant fragrances in the air. The area is also characterized by wildflowers such as ox-eye daisy, white snakeroot, purple-fringed orchid, St. John's wort and pink turtlehead. Top
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Images of the large Fraser Fir presence in the area
This image is a color aerial photo of the Mount Gibbes area (scale 1:6,000). Letters indicate important features: (A) is the clearing for the research tower, (B) is the location of the cabins, (C) is a locked gate and is the beginning of the road for the research station, (D) is the peak of Mount Gibbes park site, (E) is a locked gate at the beginning of the road toward the Mount Gibbes peak. Top
This image is a topographic map of the Mount Gibbes area (scale 1:12,500). Top
The experiment site at Mount Gibbes features four cabins installed by North Carolina State University (NCSU), including one that contains suitable living space for between six and eight investigators to stay comfortably. At least two out of the four cabins have roof platforms which are suitable for instrument mounting. The site also has a 17.1 meter tower which is about 10 meters above the canopy and is currently unoperational (Menon et al. 2000).One of the cabins has a fully equipped kitchen (refridgerator, microwave, etc.) The cabin also has a 50 watt AC unit and two telephone land lines. Top
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Images of some of the cabins
Past Research conducted at Mount Gibbes Top
Aneja, V.P., C.S. Claiborn, Z. Li and A. Murthy, (1990), Exceedences of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for Ozone Occurring at a 'Pristine Area' Site, Journal of Air and Waste Management Association, (40), 217-220.
Aneja, V.P., S. Businger, Z. Li, C.S. Claiborn and A. Murthy, (1991), Ozone Climatology at High Elevations in the Southern Appalachians. Journal of Geophysical Research, 96, 1007-1021.
Aneja, V.P., W. Robarge, C.S. Claiborn, A Murthy, D.S. Kim, Z. Li, and E.B. Cowling, (1992), Chemical Climatology of High Elevation Spruce - Fir Forests in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, Environmental Pollution, 75, 89-96.
Aneja, V. P., C. Claiborn, Z. Li, and A. Murthy (1994), Trends, Seasonal Variations and Analysis of High Elevation Surface Nitric Acid, Ozone, and Hydrogen Peroxide, Atmos. Environ., 28, 1781-1790.
Aneja, V. P., Z. Li and M. Das (1994), Ozone Case Studies at High Elevation in the Eastern United States, Chemosphere, 29, 1711-1733.
Bahrmann, C. P., and V. K. Saxena (1998), Influence of air mass history on black carbon concentrations and regional climate forcing in thesoutheastern United States. J. Geophys. Res., 103(D18), 23153-23161.
Claiborn, C.S. and V.P. Aneja, (1991), Measurements of Atmospheric Hydrogen Peroxide in the Gas-Phase and in Cloudwater at Mt. Mitchell, N.C., Journal of Geophysical Research, 96, 18771-18787.
DeFelice, T.P., and V.K. Saxena (1989), Temporal and Vertical Disturibution of Acidity and Ionic Composition in Clouds: Comparison between Modeling Results and Observations, J. Atmos. Sci., 47(9), 1117-1126.
Im, J.-S., V.K. Saxena, B.N. Wenny, (2001), Temporal trends of black carbon concentration and regional climate forcing in the southeastern U.S., Atmos. Environ., 35 (19), 3923-3302.
Im, J.-S., V.K. Saxena, B.N. Wenny, (2001), An assessment of hygroscopic growth factors for aerosols in the surface boundary layer for computing direct radiative forcing, J. Geophys. Res., 106(D17), 20213-20224.
Menon, S., V.K. Saxena, and B.D. Logie,(2000), Chemical Heterogeneity across Cloud Droplet Size Spectra in Continental and Marine Air Masses.
J. Appl. Meteor., 39, 887–903.
Menon, S., and V.K. Saxena (1998), Role of sulfates in cloud-climate feedback mechanisms. Atmos. Res., 47-48, 299-315.
Saxena, V.K., and R.J.-Y. Yeh (1988), Temporal variability in cloud water acidity. Physico-chemical chracteristics of atmospheric aerosols and wind field. J. Aerosol Sci., 19, 1207-1210.
Saxena, V.K., R.E. Stogner, A.H. Hendler, T.P. DeFelice, N.-H. Lin and R.J.-Y. Yeh (1989), Monitroring the chemiical climate of Mount Mitchell State Park for evaluatuing its impact on forest decline. Tellus, 41, 92-109.
Shaocai, Y., V.K. Saxena, B.N. Wenny, J.J. DeLuisi, G.K. Yue, I.V. Petropavlovskikh (2000), A study of the aerosol radiative properties needed to compute direct aerosol forcing in the southeastern U.S. J. Geophys. Res., 105(D20), 24739-24749.
Wenny, B.N., J.S. Schafer, J.J. DeLuisi, V.K. Saxena, W.F. Barnard, I.V. Petropavlovskikh, A.J. Vergamini (1998), A study of regional aerosol radiative properties and effects on ultraviolet-B radiation. J. Geophys. Res., 103(D14), 17083-17097.