This report describes research funded in collaboration with NOAA's cooperative agreement and the CIRA Joint Institute contract period July 1, 2001 through June 30, 2010. The report is meant to be an overview of the reporting period 2001/02 through 2009/10.

Big Bend National Park is located in southwestern Texas along the Mexican-Texas border. During the 1990s, the haze at Big Bend and other sites in West Texas and southern New Mexico increased, further obscuring Big Bend's and regions scenic beauty. In response to the increased haze, the Big Bend Regional Aerosol and Visibility Observational (BRAVO) study was conducted. This was an intensive monitoring study sampling aerosol physical, chemical and optical...

Sulfur (S) and nitrogen (N) compounds are essential nutrients for life. In excess, however, S and N can be toxic, even life threatening, and in national parks excess N and S can upset the delicate balances in natural ecosystems. N and S species can cause rain and snowfall to be acidic, and particulate sulfate (SO42-) and nitrate (NO3-) can cause significant visibility impairment and adversely affect human health.

"Surface wind data from 20 Prototype Regional Observing and Forecasting Service (PROFS) surface mesonetwork stations have been analyzed for the month of July 1981 to determine characteristic flow patterns over northeast Colorado. Streamline analyses of the surface flow over this region have been prepared on an hourly basis."

An analytical study using a simplified form of the divergent barotropic vorticity equation was performed. The results show the importance of the change in the Coriolis parameter across the cyclone in determining cyclone motion.