[audio description] A desert landscape with deep canyons
in the distance.
Active Research at Grand Canyon-
Parashant National Monument
Clear Skies and Dark Skies Monitoring
with Physical Scientist Eathan McIntyre
[Narrator] Grand Canyon-Parashant National
Monument is a vast and rugged
landscape.
Mountains and plateaus stretch far
into the distance.
These viewscapes are an essential
feature of the remoteness that defines
Parashant.
[audio description] Joshua Trees
National Park Service – An arrowhead
emblazoned with a mountain, tree, and
bison.
U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau
of Land Management – a downward
pointing triangle emblazoned with a
mountain, river, and tree
A cactus and Joshua tree.
Mountains in the distance.
Produced in Partnership with the
Great Basin Institute
–an outline of a mountain.
[narrator] The monument preserves a vestige of the
west prior to American settlement,
free from intensive development.
However, these views may be under
threat.
Urban centers in the desert southwest
are rapidly expanding.
In fact, one of Parashant's nearest
neighbors, St. George Utah
is currently the fastest growing city
in America.
[audio description] Map of Northern Arizona, Southern Utah,
and Southern Nevada.
The outline of Grand Canyon-Parashant
is highlighted. It is a large area that
stretches for over 70 miles east-west
along the north edge of the
Grand Canyon
[narrator] Will this increased activity create
more air pollution and haze?
Are the bright lights of the
Las Vegas strip far enough away to
preserve dark nights?
[audio description] Joshua trees in front of mountains.
Time speeds up, and shadows from the
trees race across the ground.
Physical scientist Eathan McIntyre
walks in the desert, and faces the
camera.
[narrator] Meet physical scientist
Eathan McIntyre.
Eathan is installing a system of
monitoring stations of his own design
to collect data on air quality and
light pollution.
[audio description] He works under a solar panel.
He holds circuitry.
[Narrator] He wants to know how these changes
could affect both visitors and
wildlife.
[audio description] A truck with large off highway tires
drives across the desert.
A solar panel and tools rest
on the truck bed.
Eathan walks across the desert,
with a solar panel on his back.
[Eathan McIntyre] I developed this system of timelapse
imaging cameras that actually look
across the landscape, and we're trying
to create metrics.
[audio description] He reaches the top of a hill,
and sets the panel down.
[Eathan] One of the aspects of air quality is
transparency, which is how clear is the
air, and what does that mean to the
visitor?
How far can they see?
[audio description] He installs the panel.
He uses a drill.
He splices wires.
[Eathan] These aren't just roadside stations.
A lot of these sites have to be remote
locations as far as getting the view
shots that we want to get.
A typical station involves a tripod,
solar panel, and of course the camera
assembly.
These cameras are timelapse cameras
taking an image about once every
minute.
What's really cool about this project
is that not only am I just getting
timelapse, but I can develop meaningful
metrics –as in how many miles can you
see across the horizon?
[audio description] Two men drive an off-highway vehicle on
a backcountry road.
[audio description] Eathan takes a solar panel from
its roof.
Deep canyons reach far into the distance.
[Eathan] Our setup here is about 110 Watts.
It's about enough to charge a cell
phone, laptop, but we have plenty of
power up here to run our station,
get our cameras up and running.
[audio description] He adjusts a camera aimed into the
distance.
Eathan sits on a very high cliff,
a rugged desert landscape stretches
far below.
He uses a laptop.
[Eathan] Just checking over some of these
scripts here, make sure they're all
where I need them to be, as far as
waking up and shutting down.
We'll be leaving the station here for
about 6 months,
coming back in the spring.
[audio description] Eathan in his office in front of two
computer screens.
One screen shows a complex equation,
the other plays timelapse imagery
of a landscape.
[Eathan] We set up two cameras at two different
locations, looking at the same target.
And what we're able to do is generate
pixel values, basically we're looking
at the mountains here along with the
sky above us.
Are they brighter, darker over time?
And what we're able to do from there is
create basically a ratio.
We're seeing the camera and pixel
values, and so we actually put those
values into our equation and from there
we actually generate how visible
the actual air is.
So we get some great numbers off this.
[audio description] A spreadsheet with long rows of data.
[Eathan] So you can see right here we go ahead
and put the numbers into our equation.
[audio description] A line graph shows the visibility
across a landscape, measured in miles.
[Eathan] For example here on a really good day
we see 35 miles of clear air.
That's one of our best days.
On one of our poor days, we're seeing
fire events, here we see maybe only
3 to 5 miles of visibility.
That's when we just see all sorts of
smoke from wildfires come into the
-into our west half of the monument-
and it really obscures our view.
We also pick up artificial sources
from road surfaces,
people out there in long convoys
kicking up dust.
So this is really meaningful.
We're not just generating just great
timelapse images,
we're seeing some really meaningful
metrics as far as how clear the air is
and what does that mean to the visitor
experience.
[audio description] Clouds race across the sky in a
timelapse of a mountain landscape.
[Eathan] One of the trends we're thinking about
is what is going on with
-as urban centers expand around the
monument- how much smoke is just coming
from just common urban center use such
as fire places and just automobiles?
[audio description] Timelapse of rainfall in a
desert canyon.
[Eathan] So what we're actually looking for is
seeing if there's any kind of long term
trend as far as are we seeing
escalating levels of smoke and dust.
So these cameras are able to pick up
those trends.
[audio description] Timelapse of sunrise over
the Grand Canyon.
Timelapse of rainfall over mountains.
[narrator] Development and city lights threaten
dark night skies as well.
[audio description] Timelapse of sunset over St. George,
Utah. Car headlights pulse in the
night.
[narrator] Eathan's stations are equipped to
monitor the night sky over Parashant
and sky glow from neighboring
metropolitan areas.
[Eathan] This night sky camera is actually
special for astronomy.
It has a very sensitive CMOS sensor
in it. We program it so that it
basically stays open for 45 seconds and
we're able to capture all the natural
light from the Milky Way,
constellations, stars.
[audio description] Nighttime timelapse of the Milky Way.
[Eathan] Parashant dark skies are actually a
remnant of what we see for the
Wild West, basically no development.
And that's what's really cool about
Parashant, is that we have very little
development as far as structures,
and lightbulbs.
However, what we see, even from about
95 miles away,
we're still picking up the sky glow
from Las Vegas and Mesquite,
St. George, Utah.
[audio description] A bullsnake coiled up at night.
[Eathan] A lot of our wildlife we see out here
is nocturnal. These are arid
landscapes, desert environments,
[audio description] The moon moves across the sky.
A hazy glow from Las Vegas is visible
far on the horizon over
the Grand Canyon.
[Eathan] so a lot of the wildlife activity
occurs after sunset. And these animals
rely on dark skies, and the pattern of
the moon going across the landscape.
And so what happens, what we see here,
we get this artificial sky glow.
We're seeing that it creates sort of a
second moon effect.
These animals are getting confused,
it's going to change their behavior.
[audio description] Stars move across the sky over
the Grand Canyon.
[narrator] Desert wildlife, like humans, are
synced to the cycles of day and night.
Each in their own way.
[audio description] Timelapse of the bright hotels,
traffic, and signs of the Las Vegas
strip at night.
[narrator] Nearly 50 species of birds on the
monument migrate at night.
They navigate by the stars and become
disoriented by bright artificial
lights.
Kangaroo rats forage less under the
full moon to avoid predators.
A nearby city mimicking the light of
the full moon, prevents the rat from
eating enough to be able to reproduce.
[audio description] Timelapse of a thunderstorm over
the Grand Canyon.
[Eathan] Are these landscapes getting lighter or
darker? Are the urban centers giving us
impacts? It's really meaningful to be
able to tell what our neighbors are
doing out there.
[audio description] Stars and the Milky Way in the night.
The skyglows from St. George, Utah and
Mesquite, Nevada are highlighted.
Timelapse of Clouds moving across the
night sky.
Production, Camera, & Editing,
Connor Henzel
Clear Sky & Dark Sky Cameras,
Eathan McIntyre
Additional Footage "Aerial footage
shows wildfire on Californian
foothills" by Guardian News
Music
"Canyon Breeze" by Montana Skies
"December Mourning" by Montana Skies
"LCP Locomotion Commotion Potion
(Pre-Mastered)" by Montana Skies
"Lift –with six string electric cello"
by Montana Skies
Malaguena (live)" by Montana Skies
"Tunnels" by Montana Skies
Audio Description, Amber Franklin
International dark-sky association
logo.
[narrator] For more information on dark skies and
light pollution, visit the
International Dark Sky Association
at DarkSky.org
[audio description] International Dark Sky Monument.
Illustration of a man and woman looking
up to a starry sky.
[narrator] Grand-Canyon Parashant National
Monument is an International Dark Sky
Monument.
[audio description] Grand Canyon-Parashant National
Monument.
National Park Service – An arrowhead
emblazoned with a mountain, tree, and
bison.
U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau
of Land Management – a downward
pointing triangle emblazoned with a
mountain, river, and tree.
Produced in Partnership with the Great
Basin Institute.
An outline of a mountain.
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