Satellite Data Us in PM Management:A Retrospective Assessment

Rudolf B. Husar

CAPITA, Washington UniversityPresented at A&WMA’s 97th Annual Conference and Exhibition

June 22-27, Indianapolis, IN

MexicanSmoke

Early Satellite Detection of Manmade Haze, 1976

Regional Haze

Low Visibility Hazy ‘Blobs’Lyons W.A., Husar R.B. Mon. Weather Rev. 1976

SMS GOES June 30 1975

Scientific Challenge: Description of PM

• Gaseous concentration: g (X, Y, Z, T)

• Aerosol concentration: a (X, Y, Z, T, D, C, F, M)

• The ‘aerosol dimensions’ size D, composition C, shape F, and mixing M determine the impact on health, and welfare.

Dimension Abbr.

Data SourcesSpatial dimensions X, Y Satellites, dense networks

Height Z Lidar, soundings

Time T Continuous monitoring

Particle size D Size-segregated sampling

Particle Composition C Speciated analysis

Particle Shape/Form F Microscopy

Ext/Internal Mixture M Microscopy

Particulate matter is complex because of its multi-dimensionality

It takes at leas 8 independent dimensions to describe the PM concentration pattern

Technical Challenge: Characterization

• PM characterization requires many different instruments and analysis tools.

• Each sensor/network covers only a limited fraction of the 8-D PM data space.

• Most of the 8D PM pattern is extrapolated from sparse measured data.

• Some devices (e.g. single particle electron microscopy) measure only a small subset of the PM; the challenge is extrapolation to larger space-time domains.

• Others, like satellites, integrate over height, size, composition, shape, and mixture dimensions; these data need de-convolution of the integral measures.

Vertical Pattern of Global Aerosol

• Windblown Dust (crustal elements)

• Biomass Smoke (organics, H20 )

• Sea H20 salt (NaCl. H20)

• Stratospheric (Volcanic) (H2SO4)

• Biogenic (Non-sea salt sulfate, org)

• Urban-Industrial Haze (SO4, org. H20)

• Dust, smoke, volcanic aerosol and industrial haze originate from land

• The global aerosol concentration is highest over land and near the continents over the oceans (coastal regions)

• Sea salt is significant over some of the windy oceanic regions and biogenic sulfate and organic aerosols also occur …

Just like the human eye, satellite sensors detect the total amount of solar radiation that is reflected from the earth’s surface (Ro) and backscattered by the atmosphere from aerosol, pure air, and clouds. A simplified expression for the relative radiatioin detected by a satellite sensor (I/Io) is:

I / Io = Ro e- + (1- e-) P

Satellite Detection of Aerosols

Today, geo-synchronous and polar orbiting satellites can detect different aspects of aerosols over the globe daily.

where is the aerosol optical thickness and P the angular light scattering probability.

Height Type Size Angle Shape

dHdCdDdPdSSPDCHI

Information ‘Refinery’ Value Chain (Taylor, 1975)

•

Informing Knowledge

ActionProductive Knowledge

InformationData

Organizing

Grouping Classifying Formatting Displaying

Analyzing

SeparatingEvaluating Interpreting

Synthesizing

Judging

Options Quality

Advantages Disadvantages

Deciding

Matching goals, Compromising

Bargaining Deciding

e.g. CIRA VIEWS

e.g. Langley IDEA

RAW System

e.g. WG Summary Rpt

e.g. RPO Manager

Asian Dust Cloud over N. America

On April 27, the dust cloud arrived in North America.

Regional average PM10 concentrations increased to 65 g/m3

In Washington State, PM10 concentrations exceeded 100 g/m3

Asian Dust 100 g/m3

Hourly PM10

The Asian Dust Event of April 1998

On April 19, 1998 a major dust storm occurred over the Gobi Desert

The dust cloud was seen by SeaWiFS, TOMS, GMS, AVHRR satellites

The transport of the dust cloud was followed on-line by an an ad-hoc international group

China

Mongolia

Korea

Supporting Evidence: Transport Analysis

Satellite data (e.g. SeaWiFS) show Sahara Dust reaching Gulf of Mexico and

entering the continent.

The air masses arrive to Big Bend, TX form the east (July) and from the west

(April)

Sahara PM10 Events over Eastern USMuch previous work by Prospero, Cahill, Malm, Scanning the AIRS PM10 and IMPROVE chemical

databases several regional-scale PM10 episodes over the Gulf Coast (> 80 ug/m3) that can be attributed to Sahara.

June 30, 1993

The highest July, Eastern US, 90th percentile PM10 occurs over the Gulf Coast ( > 80 ug/m3)

Sahara dust is the dominant contributor to peak July PM10 levels.

July 5, 1992

June 21 1997

May 15, 1998

• Fire locations detected by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) sensor.

• Smoke is detected by SeaWiFS and TOMS (green) satellites and surface visibility data, Bext

Smoke from Central American Fires

• The smoke plume extends from Guatemala to Hudson May in Canada

• The Bext values indicate that the smoke is present at the surface

July 2020 Quebec Smoke Event

Superposition of ASOS visibility data (NWS) and SeaWiFS reflectance data for July 7, 2002

–

• PM2.5 time series for New England sites. Note the high values at White Face Mtn.

• Micropulse Lidar data for July 6 and July 7, 2002 - intense smoke layer over D.C. at 2km altitude.

May-June 2003 Siberian Fires

What kind of neighborhood is this anyway?

May 9, 1998 A Really Bad Aerosol Day for N. America

Asian Smoke

C. American Smoke

Canada Smoke

Global Oceanic Aerosol Pattern (1997)Tropical zones dominate; Dust and Smoke dominate Husar, Prospero, Stowe, 1997

Pattern of Fires over N. AmericaThe number of ATSR satellite-observed fires peaks in

warm seasonFire onset and smoke amount is unpredictable

Fire Pixel Count:

Western US

North America

GOES 8

• Images for every ½ hour processed daily

• Processing includes georeferencing and gamma correction

Retrieved Optical Depth

2000.08.15

Retrieved Optical Depth

2000.08.18

CAPITA NASA REASON Project:Application of Satellite Data to PM Management

Schematic representation of data sharing in a federated information system.Based on the premise that providers expose part of their data (green) to others

Data Federation Concept and the FASNET Network

Please Visit DataFed.Net

Web-based data delivery: Analysts Console

Near Real Time Public Satellite Data Delivery

Interactive Virtual Workgroup WebsitesJuly 2002 Quebec Smoke

Real-Time Aerosol Watch (RAW)

RAW is an open communal facility to study non-industrial (e.g. dust and smoke) aerosol events, including detection, tracking and impact on PM and haze.

RAW output will be directly applicable, to public health protection, Regional Haze rule, SIP and model development as well as toward stimulating the scientific community.

The main asset of RAW is the community of data analysts, modelers, managers and others participating in the production of actionable knowledge from observations, models

and human reasoning

The RAW community will be supported by a networking infrastructure based on open Internet standards (web services) and a set of web-tools evolving under the umbrella of

Fast Aerosol Sensing Tools for Natural Event Tracking (FASTNET).

Initially, FASTNET is composed of the Community Website for open community interaction, the Analysts Console for diverse data access and the Managers Console for

AQ management decision support.

Summary

• Satellite data have aided the science of Particulate Matter since the 1970s

• Satellite data have supported PM air quality management since the 1990s.

• Past satellite data helped the qualitative description of PM spatial pattern

• Quantitative satellite data use and fusion with surface data is still in infancy

• Satellite data applications will require collaboration across disciplines