Air and Waste Management Association Professional Development Course

AIR-257: Satellite Detection of Aerosols

Instructor:Rudolf Husar, Ph.D. Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Washington University, St. Louis, MOOctober 25, 2004, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Asheville, NC

Aerosol - Free Quebec Smoke Reflectance

Quebec Smoke AOT

Syllabus

9:00-9:30 Introduction to satellite aerosol detection and monitoring9:30-10:00 Satellite Types and their Usage10:00-10:30 Satellite detection of aerosol events: fires, dust

storms, haze

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-11:00 Satellite data and tools for the RPO FASTNET project11:15-11:30 Satellite Data Use in AQ Management: Issues and Opportunities11:30-12:00 Class-defined problems, feedback, discussion, exam(?)

April 1998 Asian Dust Events - Synopsis

• In April 1998, several unusually intense dust storms were generated over the Gobi Desert by springtime cold weather systems with over 20 m/s surface wind speed.

•The dust cloud from the April 19 storm was swiftly transported across the Pacific reaching North America within 5 days. Part of the cloud subsided to the surface between British Columbia and CA while another part was observed aloft in layers up to 10 km.

•During the peak on April 29 the dust increased PM concentrations 20-50 g/m3 over the West Coast and the daily PM10 concentration approached the health standard.

Asian Dust Cloud Source Region

•The largest dust storms of the season occurred on April 15 and 19.

•TOMS data indicate that the April 19, 1998 storm was the most intense dust event in the 1997-99 period.

April 15 Dust Cloud Over AsiaSeaWiFS data with TOMS overlays (green lines)

•SeaWiFS satellite data indicate that the dust storms on April 15 and 19 originated from the same region of Gobi Desert.

•The dust sources are streaks of dust plumes originating from specific patches of land.

April 19 Dust Cloud Over AsiaSeaWiFS data with TOMS overlays (green lines)

After about 500 km of transport, the plumes tend to merge and the streaky plume structure disappears.

On April 19, the visibility was reduced due to dust throughout central and eastern Mongolia, and the optical thickness increased from < 0.5 on April 18 to > 2 on April 19.

April 19, ‘98

Impact of Dust on Spectral Reflectance

Excess spectral reflectance of dust over the ocean

Change of the spectral reflectance of soil with increasing dust. Note, the yellow coloration of white clouds viewed through a dust layer.

Figure 3. Dust transport over the Pacific Ocean between April 21-25. In the SeaWiFS images [Kuring, 1998], the dust appears as a yellow dye marking its own position at noon each day.

Dust Cloud Over North AmericaGOES 10 S GOES 10 Geostationary satellite image

By April 27th, the dust cloud rolled into North America and split with one branch heading southward along the CA coast and the another branch continuing eastward across the Canadian Rockies.

West Coast PM10 Concentration

•Regional average PM10 levels reached 65 µg/m3

compared to typical values of 10-25 µg/m3

•On April 29, the PM10 exceeded 100 µg/m3 over parts of Washington and Oregon

IMPROVE Fine Particle Dust Concentrations

 

April 25, 1998 April 29, 1998 May 2, 1998

On April 25, the western U.S. was virtually dust-free, but reached high concentrations by April 29. On May 2, the elevated dust concentrations moved over the Rocky Mountains and the Colorado Plateau

Fine Particle Dust Ten Year Trends

Figure 8. Ten-year trend of fine particle dust concentration at three IMPROVE monitoring sites.

Vertical Profile of Dust Cloud Over North America

The height of the dust layer on April 27 was between 6-10 km

Lidar backscatter at JPL, Pasadena. Lidar profiles at Salt Lake City

Solar Radiation Data for Eugene, OR

The Asian Dust Events of April 1998

Prepared by:

R. B. Husar, D. Tratt, B. A. Schichtel, S. R. Falke, F. Li D. Jaffe, S.

Gassó, T. Gill, N. S. Laulainen, F. Lu. M Reheis, Y. Chun, D. Westpha,

B. N. Holben, C. Geymard, I. McKendry, N. Kuring, G. C. Feldman, C.

McClain, R. J. Frouin, J. Merrill, D. DuBois, F. Vignola, T. Murayama,

S. Nickovic, W. E. Wilson, K. Sassen, N. Sugimoto

Paper to be submitted to the JGR issue on dustDecember 27, 1999

http://capita.wustl.edu/Asia-FarEast/reports/JGR/AsianDustEpisodeApril1998Draft5.htm

The Central American Smoke Event of May 1998

A Draft Summary Based on Reports and Data on the Web

Rudolf B. Husar and Bret Schichtel

CAPITA, Dec 1998

Location of fires (red dots) on May 15, 1998, based on Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellite data

NOAA’s Operational Significant Event Imagery (OSEI)

Throughout the spring of 1998, thousands of fires in Central America have been burning with twice the intensity of normal springtime fires.

Forest Fires over Central America

Smoke from the Central American Fires

Based on SeaWiFS and other satellite imagery, thick smoke has been lingering over southern Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras and adjacent oceans throughout the spring season.

3D SeaWiFS May 14, 1998

SeaWiFS, TOMS, Bext May 14, 1998

SeaWiFS, TOMS, Bext May 15, 1998

SeaWiFS, TOMS, Bext May 16, 1998

TOMS Aerosol Index

GOES 8 Visible Imagery

May 12 May 14 May 15 May 16

Smoke passes over Eastern North America

May 2 May 3 May

5May 6

May 4 May

7

May 8

May 9 May

10May 11 May

12May 13

May 14

May 15 May 16 May 17 May 18 May

19

May 20 May 21 May 22 May 23

May 24 May 25

May 26

May 27 May 28

May 29 May 30 May 31

Daily TOMS images of absorbing aerosol index

Average Excess TOMS Index for Mar., Apr., May 1998

Excess TOMS absorbing aerosol index averaged for March, April, May 1998 compared to 1999. The insert depicts the 1998 smoke impact from a global perspective.

Surface Ozone Concentration

Superposition of daily maximum ozone and aerosol extinction maps derived from surface visibility.

PM10 concentration over the Eastern U.S. during the smoke event

The smoke drifted into the US and Canada and caused exceedances of the PM standard, health alerts, and impairment of air traffic due to thick haze.

SeaWiFS Surface Reflectance on Clear and Smoky Days

Spectral reflectance data derived from the SeaWiFS sensor on May 15, 1998; b) Excess aerosol backscattering over water.

Goes 8 Visible Image HY-SPLIT Trajectories

HY-SPLIT PlumesTOMS Aerosol Index

Comparison of HYSPLIT Predictions of airmass transport to GOES 8 and TOMS imagery

Surface Haze-Ozone Map Comparison

•Surface haze maps show the north and eastward transport of smoke aerosol•Regionally, the smoke does not appear to add ozone to the existing values •Rather, ozone in the smoky airmass tends to be lower than their surroundings

The BigSmoke in New England, July 2002 Smoke transport from Quebec to New England to …

An evolving presentation by a virtual community. Would you like add to this presentation?

1. Download this PPT presentation

2. Add your content, return to rhusar@me.wustl.edu

See also the Aerosol Events Website for discussion

MODIS image

Fire Pixels from MODIS, June 25-July 6, 2002

• Several satellite sensor (MODIS, GOES, AVHRR, ATSR…..) detect the location of most fires - DAILY• These ‘fire pixels’ can be used as sensor-based inputs to regional/global models, e.g. NAAPS• However, the quantity of smoke emitted from the from the ‘fire pixels’ can not be estimated well . • Hence, real-time model simulation of smoke transport is limited by the smoke emission estimates

Quebec Fires

Note pixel clusters due to larger fires

Manitoba – Sask. Fires

Note pixel clusters due to larger fires

SE US Fires

Random pixels from small fires

MODIS: The Fine-Scale Picture

The Fires and the Smoke Transport of Smoke from N. Quebec to SE Canada and NE US.

020705MODIS 020706 MODIS

MODIS Land Rapid Response System

020707 MODIS

SeaWiFS Hires: The Regional Picture

• Preceding and during the Quebec smoke event, there was a sulfate episode over the Eastern US.

• The Quebec smoke has a distinctly yellow color, different from the bluish sulfate haze.

020706SeaWiFS 020707SeaWiFS 020708SeaWiFS

Sulfate

Haze

Sulfate

Haze

Sulfate

HazeSmoke Smoke

Smoke

GOES 8 Animation

July 6 animation: low-resolution, high resolution July 7 animation: low resolution, high resolution

HazeCam - Boston

• 020706 10:00 Normal bluish haze

• 020707 10:00 Yellow haze - smoke

CamNet -Webcam

HazeCam - Newark

• 020705 17:00 Clear

• 020706 17:00

• Yellow haze - smoke

CamNet -Webcam

HazeCam - Hartford

• 020705 9:00 Normal bluish haze

• 020707 09:00 Yellow haze – smoke

• Why is this smoke so yellow??

CamNet -Webcam

Smoke Pattern from

ASOS Visibility sensors

The largest circles correspond to > 100 ug/m3 PM2.5

SeaWiFS & ASOS & TOMS

• SeaWiFS & ASOS Yellow circles proportional to ASOS Bext

• SeaWiFS & TOMS absorbing aerosol index.

• Notes: Yellow color (absorbing in blue?); no TOMS for fresh smoke

SeaWiFS & TOMS

Quebec Fires, July 6, 2002

SeaWiFS, METAR and TOMS Index superimposed

SeaWiFS satellite and

METAR surface haze shown in the Voyager distributed data

browser

Satellite data are fetched from NASA GSFC; surface data

from NWS/CAPITA servers

GOES 8 – METAR

July 6, 2002 8:15, 12:15, 16:15 EST

GOES8 20020706_1315 UTC

GOES8 20020706_1315

GOES8 20020706_1715 UTC

GOES8 20020706_2115 UTC

Voyager Spatio-Temporal Data Browser

TOMS: The Big Picture

Absorbing Aerosol Index

July 5: The near-source, low level smoke is not detected by TOMS

July 5

July 6

July 7

July 8

July 9

July 6-7: Smoke plume signal is very intense over S. Ontario and NE US.

July 8-9: Transport to the Atlantic.

Where will the smoke reach Europe?

How intense, will it be detectable?

Would anyone run Hysplit, ATAD?

July 10

July 11

Trans-Atlantic Transport of Quebec Smoke

July 11: Smoke approaching Europe

July 10: Quebec smoke over Mid-Atlantic

SeaWiFS Reflectance

TOMS Absorbing Aerosol

SeaWiFS Reflectance

TOMS Absorbing Aerosol

Spain

Spain

E. US

NRL Forecast Model for Dust, Smoke and SulfateMETAR Surface Haze

• Real-time model and surface observations are compared spatially and temporally• By July 11 the smoke has cleared, but the EUS sulfate episode persisted

Dust

Sulfate

Smoke

METAR HazeTime Selector

Micro Pulse Lidar, NASA Goddard

Total reflectance and optical depth comparison

Smoke plume

Haze

Filtered clouds

Continuing work

• Estimation of smoke fluxes1. Identify specific smoke plumes

2. Divide map into location grids

3. Use wind vector data to calculate flux through the grids

4. These values are required for climatological models

• Data fusion– Data from remote sensing and ground-based networks are complimentary

– Multiple data sets will be fused to improve understanding