Mt. Fuji High Altitude Station（tentative）: Logistics as an NPO Station,Oxidant Determination and a Proposal for East Asia NetworkYukiko Dokiya1, Shungo Kato2, Kazuhiko Miura3, Atsushi Matsuki4,Kazuya Sasaki5 and Toyohiro Watanabe6
1 College of Sociology, Edogawa University, 474 Komaki, Nagareyama City,
270-0198, Japan
dokiya@edogawa-u. ac.jp
2 Faculty of Urban Environmental Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University
3 Faculty of Science, Tokyo University of Science
4 Frontier Science Organization, Kanazawa University
5 Department of Technology, the University of Tokyo
6 Department of Sociology, Tsuru University
The summit of the Mt. Fuji is supposed to be one of the most promisingsampling points for studying atmospheric chemistry in the free troposphere.
However, since autumn 2004, the station was evacuated because JMA (JapanMeteorological Agency) decided not to further maintain the Mt. Fuji RADAR for
the weather forecasting duties. We, the researchers who were interested to doresearch at the station, volunteered and made tremendous efforts to establish an
NPO “Valid Utilization of Mt. Fuji Weather Station”, in order to have the station
survived as a governmental institute, and utilize it not only by ourselves but by
sharing with larger scientific communities.
Strategies
From July 2007, we are borrowing a part of the station from JMA including
the electrical supply. Here, we introduce how we have been managing the station
during July to August in 2007 and 2008 and also how we will continue ouractivities in 2009.
1) Safety is the priority in the strategies of our logistics. Since life at the summitof Mt. Fuji is not easy even in summer time because of the severe
meteorological conditions. We have hired 7 experienced climbers to maintainthe station as “mountain crews”. Two of them had experience of working at thestation as part timers when the station was still operated by JMA.
2) Maintenance of electricity is another big issue. In addition to the maintenanceof long power lines from the foot of the mountain, frequent thunder storms at
the summit inevitably cause power failures. During the time JMA wasoperating the station, manually cutting the commercial electricity before being
hit by the thunder storms and replacing it by an oil generator was the best way
to prevent severe damage. We basically followed the same procedure.
3) One of the merits of NPO management is that the station can be open not only
to atmospheric chemists but also to the researchers of other fields such ascosmic ray observation, high altitude medical studies, researches on
permafrost and moss, etc. Environmental education is also included. Figure 1
shows the relationship of the NPO and related activities.
Mt. Fuji High Altitude Station (tentative)
NPO and related research groups.

NPO

Watch team ontransboundary air pollution

Watanabe Fund u pp
Investigation on
infla-structureand network
construction

Storattack

Other FundsAerosol
ResearchCon trac

feeionizat
Util
JSPS Funds

Nucleation, Cloud chemistry,
Aerosols, VOCs, Trace Gases・・・・
JAMSTEC

Logistics
Measurefor the of thethunder site

CollaborationtRes

Atmospheric ChemistryTrans-boundary air pollution

earc hNIES, JE

CO2 Observation

Cosmic Ray SciencePermafrost
High Altitude Medical Research
New Material Research
Environmental Education

Figure 1 NPO research and fund scheme

Outcomes
In the 2007 summer campaign, maintenance of electricity was safely
performed by cutting and switching to an oil generator more than 50 times.
During the period from July 10 to September 5, 2007, 210 person*day utilized thestation which was maintained by 3 mountain crews. 9 research projects weresuccessfully performed and 7 of which (the titles are as follows) were reported at
the symposium on January 27, 2008.
H. Yasuda et al. Continuous automatic monitoring of cosmic ray at ultra-high altitude.
Y. Igarashi et al. Aerosol characterization by using Mt. Fuji as an observation tower
Y. Nojiri et al. Long term CO2 observation in remote and harsh environment.
M. Yamamoto et al. Effect of short period high altitude training utilizing Mt. Fuji Weather station.
R. Ide et al. Change of oxidative-stress and anti-oxidation power during climbing at Mt. Fuji.
K. Asano et al. Studies on the response of autonomic nervous system and acupuncture to acute mountainsickness during short staying at the top of Mt. Fuji
T. Masuzawa, Dynamics of permafrost and plant community during 10 years on summit of Mt. Fuji.

Following the success of 2007 campaign, requests from potential
participants increased for the 2008 summer campaign. So, a selection committee
was established within NPO to select the proposals. It was fortunate andsurprising for us that 2 international proposals, those of Prof. G.R. Sheu (detailwill be shown in their presentations) and Dr. P. Laj were among them. During theperiod from July 10 to Aug. 31, 263 person*day utilized the station. In addition tothe list of projects in 2007 campaign, following titles were included in 2008:
G. R. Sheu et al. Long-range transport of atmospheric mercury in free troposphere
P. Laj et al., New particle formation events at Mount Fuji
A. Ikeda et al., Long range and deep monitoring of permafrost at Mt. Fuji.

In the 2008 campaign, educational and training activities were newly
introduced, one of which was that of Dr. M. Horii who organized an environmental
education team of junior high school students.
In July, a new fund from Watanabe Memorial Foundation for theAdvancement of Technology was approved for 2008 to 2010 as a consignment
research on the construction of trans-boundary oxidant pollution in East Asia
utilizing Mt. Fuji Weather Station. Within the frame of this project, a feasibility
study was performed on clean micro-grid power supplies at Mt. Fuji, which will beextended as a small scale experiment in 2009 campaign.
We also faced many difficulties such as damaged electric poles by heavy
snow which caused some financial damage to NPO. Others troubles include
interference in radio communication, transportation of instruments by bulldozers,
many legal procedures to be followed as the station is situated within the nationalpark. Despite the difficulties however, up to the present, no critical problems areemerging while new research results are coming up.
Oxidant Observation DataThe collaboration of NPO with JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine-EarthScience and Technology) is on the trans-boundary air pollutants. As a part ofthis collaboration, oxidant data obtained during 2007 and 2008 campaigns areshown below. There was considerable concentration variation. But no apparent
diurnal change was observed during the period, indicating the free troposphericcondition.

Figure 2 Ambient concentration of ozone and CO at the summit of Mt. Fuji.

In the 2008 campaign, the concentration of CO was also observed. CO canwork as a indicator of polluted air mass. Concentrations of O3 and CO showedsimilar trends. This indicated that polluted air was arrived at the summit of Mt.
Fuji by long-range transport. However, in some O3 peaks (Aug. 1, 8, and 22) were
not accompanied with CO peaks. Low humidity was observed in these occasions,which suggest that a mixing of the higher air mass was occurring.
Proposal for the East Asia Net Work
Establishment of an East Asian observation network (Fig.3) on oxidant
concentration is necessary and of an urgent task to forecast and prevent severe
environmental disorder which is to be caused by developing industry of Asiancountries. The spread of the air pollution maybe similar in extent or even larger
than that faced by the European countries in the 20th century.
Continuous observation of ozone concentration has already been performed
at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, ABC Pyramid, Nepal and Lulin Baseline Station, Taiwan.
The measuring conditions and data output are similar in all sites as shown in
Table 1. So, it seems possible to operate real time data communication once data
could be obtained and connected by wireless LAN system. Therefore, in order toestablish East Asia Observation Network, continuous year round observation at
Mt. Fuji is necessary.
NCOP (ABC Pyramid), Nepal
Dr. P. Laj
MLO (Mauna Loa Observatory)

Nepal

Dr. R. Schnell
HawaiiMt. FujiTaiwanLABS (Lulin Baseline Station)
Prof. N.H. Lin
Mt.Fuji High Altitude Station
Dr. Y. Dokiya

Figure 3 East Asia Network of Trans-boundary Oxidant observation
Table 1 Comparison of oxidant determination at 4 sites
NCOP(ABCPyramid)
Nepal, 5100ｍ
Inlet

Instrument

Measuring
Conditions
Calibration

Out Put

MLO (Mauna Loa Observatory)
USA, 3397m

LABS(Lulin Baseline Station)
Taiwan, 2862m

Mt. Fuji High Altitude Station(tentative)

Japan, 3776m

tefron tube
tefron filter

10m above the ground

12m above the ground(through the steel chimney of6m）

tefron tube (0.25 inch)
tefron filter

ThermoEnvironmental
Instruments, Model 49C

TEI Model 49-S, Pulsed
Fluorescence Ozone Analyser

ECOTECH ML9810B

ThermoEnvironmental
Instruments, Model 49C

Continuous, Sample flowrate at 1-3 liters/min(usually at 1.8 l/m). Zero continuousand span checks areautomatically performed
every 24 hours.
concentration (ppb) via
RS-232.RS-232

concentration (ppb)

Continuous, Sample flow rate
at 0.45 L/min.
continuous
Zero and span checks areautomatically performed every
24 hours.(between 01:46:02 toa digital signal in concentration concentration (ppb) every 1miute(ppb) via RS-232.

Acknowledgement： This work was performed during the period in which the NPO “Valid Utilization of Mt.
Fuji Weather Station” maintained the facilities, supported by the Watanabe Memorial Foundation for the
Advancement of Technology, etc.