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At least 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1990

Satellite measurements of large-scale air pollution - Measurements of forest fire smoke

The transport, optical properties, total mass, and removal of smoke produced by forest fires in western Canada during late July and early August 1982 are studied using NOAA 7 AVHRR data. Color composite imagery is produced to track the movement of the smoke over Canada and the U.S. as the smoke traveled thousands of km from the source region. Smoke optical thickness, particle size, and single scattering albedo are computed using radiances measured by AVHRR bands 1 and 2. Results show that smoke optical thickness ranged from less that 0.1 to greater than 3.7 and the geometric mean mass radii ranged from 300 to 900 nm. The smoke single scattering albedo ranged from 0.9 to nearly 1.0. The total smoke mass over the eastern U.S. ranged from 0.1 to 0.5 Tg, which is close to the 0.5 Tg estimated from the forest fuel content. The smoke lifetime is estimated to be between 15 and 20 days.

Ferrare, Richard A.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Convective Lofting Links Indian Ocean Air Pollution to Paradoxical South Atlantic Ozone Maxima

We describe a broad resolution of the "Atlantic Paradox" concerning the seasonal and geographic distribution of tropical tropospheric ozone. We describe periods of significant maximum tropospheric O3 for Jan.-April, 1999, exploiting satellite estimates and SHADOZ (Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozonesondes). Trajectory analyses connecting sondes and Total Tropospheric Ozone (TTO)O3 maps suggest a complex influence from the Indian Ocean: beginning with mixed combustion sources, then low level transport, cumulonimbus venting, and finally high-level transport to the west, with possible mixing over Africa. For the Jan.- March highest column-O3 periods in the Atlantic, distinct sounding peaks trace to specific NO sources, especially lightning, while in the same episodes, recurring every 30 or 60 days, more diffuse buildups of Indian-to-Atlantic pollution make important contributions.

Chatfield, Robert B.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Vertical Profiling of Air Pollution at RAPCD

The interaction between local and regional pollution levels occurs at the interface of the Planetary Boundary Layer and the Free Troposphere. Measuring the vertical distribution of ozone, aerosols, and winds with high temporal and vertical resolution is essential to diagnose the nature of this interchange and ultimately for accurately forecasting ozone and aerosol pollution levels. The Regional Atmospheric Profiling Center for Discovery, RAPCD, was built and instrumented to address this critical issue. The ozone W DIAL lidar, Nd:YAG aerosol lidar, and 2.1 micron Doppler wind lidar, along with balloon- borne ECC ozonesondes form the core of the W C D instrumentation for addressing this problem. Instrumentation in the associated Mobile Integrated Profiling (MIPS) laboratory includes 91 5Mhz profiler, sodar, and ceilometer. The collocated Applied particle Optics and Radiometry (ApOR) laboratory hosts an FTIR along with MOUDI and optical particle counters. With MODELS-3 analysis by colleagues in the National Space Science and Technology Center on the UAH campus and the co- located National Weather Service Forecasting Office in Huntsville, AL we are developing a unique facility for advancing the state of the science of pollution forecasting.

Newchurch, Michael J.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Convective lofting links Indian Ocean air pollution to paradoxical South Atlantic ozone maxima

We describe a broad resolution of the Atlantic Parado concerning the seasonal and geographic distribution, of tropical tropospheric ozone. We highlight periods of significant maximum tropospheric O3 for Jan.- April, 1999, exploiting satellite estimates and SHADOZ (Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozonesondes). Trajectory analyses connecting sondes and Total Tropospheric Ozone (TTO) maps suggest a complex influence from the Indian Ocean: beginning with mixed combustion sources, then low level transport, cumulonimbus venting, possible stratospheric input, and finally high-level transport to the west, with possible mixing over Africa. For the Jan.-March highest column-O3 periods in the Atlantic, distinct sounding peaks trace to specific NO sources, especially lightning, while in the same episodes, recurring every 20-50 days, more diffuse buildups of Indian-to-Atlantic pollution make important contributions.

Chatfield, R. B.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Anthropogenic Air Pollution Observed Near Dust Source Regions in Northwestern China During Springtime 2008

Trace gases and aerosols were measured in Zhangye (39.082degN, 100.276degE, 1460 m a.s. 1.), a rural site near the Gobi deserts in northwestern China during spring 2008. Primary trace gases (CO:265 ppb; SO2:3.4 ppb; NO(*y): 4.2 ppb; hereafter results given as means of hourly data) in the area were lower than in eastern China, but still indicative of marked anthropogenic emissions. Sizable aerosol mass concentration (153 micro-g/cu m) and light scattering (159/Mm at 500 nm) were largely attributable to dust emissions, and aerosol light absorption (10.3/Mm at 500 nm) was dominated by anthropogenic pollution. Distinct diurnal variations in meteorology and pollution were induced by the local valley terrain. Strong daytime northwest valley wind cleaned out pollution and was replaced by southeast mountain wind that allowed pollutants to build up overnight. In the afternoon, aerosols had single scattering albedo (SSA, 500 mn) of 0.95 and were mainly of supermicron particles, presumably dust, while at night smaller particles and SSA of 0.89-0.91 were related to Pollution. The diverse local emission sources were characterized: the CO/SO2, CO/NO(y), NO(y)/SO2 (by moles), and BC/CO (by mass) ratios for small point sources such as factories were 24.6-54.2, 25.8-35.9, 0.79-1.31, and 4.1-6.1 x 10(exp -3), respectively, compared to the corresponding inventory ratios of 43.7-71.9, 23.7-25.7, 1.84-2.79, and 3.4-4.0 x 10(exp -3) for the industrial sector in the area. The mixing between dust and pollution can be ubiquitous in this region. During a dust storm shown as an example, pollutants were observed to mix with dust, causing discernible changes in both SSA and aerosol size distribution. Further interaction between dust and pollutants during transport may modify the properties of dust particles that are critical for their large-scale impact on radiation, clouds, and global biogeochemical cycles.

Li, Can↗
NASA NTRS2014

Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GeoCAPE) Filter Radiometer (FR)

The GeoCAPE Filter Radiometer (FR) Study is a different instrument type than all of the previous IDL GeoCape studies. The customer primary goals are to keep mass, volume and cost to a minimum while meeting the science objectives and maximizing flight opportunities by fitting on the largest number of GEO accommodations possible. Minimize total mission costs by riding on a commercial GEO satellite. For this instrument type, the coverage rate, km 2 min, was significantly increased while reducing the nadir ground sample size to 250m. This was accomplished by analyzing a large 2d area for each integration period. The field of view will be imaged on a 4k x 4k detector array of 15 micrometer pixels. Each ground pixel is spread over 2 x 2 detector pixels so the instantaneous field of view (IFOV) is 2048 X 2048 ground pixels. The baseline is, for each field of view 50 sequential snapshot images are taken, each with a different filter, before indexing the scan mirror to the next IFOV. A delta would be to add additional filters.

Geo Cape↗
NASA NTRS2014

Air Pollution Over the Ganges Basin and Northwest Bay of Bengal in the Early Postmonsoon Season Based on NASA MERRAero Data

The MERRA Aerosol Reanalysis (MERRAero) has been recently developed at NASA's Global Modeling Assimilation Office. This reanalysis is based on a version of the Goddard Earth Observing System-5 (GEOS-5) model radiatively coupled with Goddard Chemistry, Aerosol, Radiation, and Transport aerosols, and it includes assimilation of bias-corrected aerosol optical thickness (AOT) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor on both Terra and Aqua satellites. In October over the period 2002-2009, MERRAero showed that AOT was lower over the east of the Ganges basin than over the northwest of the Ganges basin: this was despite the fact that the east of the Ganges basin should have produced higher anthropogenic aerosol emissions because of higher population density, increased industrial output, and transportation. This is evidence that higher aerosol emissions do not always correspond to higher AOT over the areas where the effects of meteorological factors on AOT dominate those of aerosol emissions. MODIS AOT assimilation was essential for correcting modeled AOT mainly over the northwest of the Ganges basin, where AOT increments were maximal. Over the east of the Ganges basin and northwest Bay of Bengal (BoB), AOT increments were low and MODIS AOT assimilation did not contribute significantly to modeled AOT. Our analysis showed that increasing AOT trends over northwest BoB (exceeding those over the east of the Ganges basin) were reproduced by GEOS-5, not because of MODIS AOT assimilation butmainly because of the model capability of reproducing meteorological factors contributing to AOT trends. Moreover, vertically integrated aerosol mass flux was sensitive to wind convergence causing aerosol accumulation over northwest BoB.

AOT↗
NASA NTRS2014

Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GeoCAPE) Wide Angle Spectrometer (WAS)

The GeoCAPE Wide Angle Spectrometer (WAS) Study was a revisit of the COEDI Study from 2012. The customer primary goals were to keep mass, volume and cost to a minimum while meeting the science objectives and maximizing flight opportunities by fitting on the largest number of GEO accommodations possible. Riding on a commercial GEO satellite minimizes total mission costs. For this study, it is desired to increase the coverage rate,km2min, while maintaining ground sample size, 375m, and spectral resolution, 0.4-0.5nm native resolution. To be able to do this, the IFOV was significantly increased, hence the wide angle moniker. The field of view for COEDI was +0.6 degrees or (2048) 375m ground pixels. The WAS Threshold (the IDL study baseline design) is +2.4 degrees IDL study baseline design) is +2.4 degrees.

pointing and jitter↗
NASA NTRS1973

Comparison of Lidar Methods for Remote Measurement of Air Pollutants

This paper presents quantitative comparisons of several single-ended lidar techniques for the remote measurement of gaseous pollutants. These techniques are divided into two groups. The first group is based on the measurement of energy scattered directly by the gas of interest. The gaseous scattering processes considered are ordinary fluorescence, resonance fluorescence (also called resonance scattering), Raman scattering, and resonant (or nearly resonant) Raman scattering. The second group is based on the measurement of a characteristic differential absorption produced by the gas of interest at two discrete wavelengths, using energy scattered back toward the receiver by a remote reflector other than the gas of interest. The remote reflector may be intermixed with the gas of interest, as is the case with aerosols and atmospheric gases (principally nitrogen), or they may be fixed reflectors such as terrestrial objects or retroflectors. The detectability of a given material will depend on the magnitude and characteristics of the optical interaction with that material. The main characteristics of interest are the cross section, the response time, and the spectral response of the material relative to both the transmit and receive functions of the lidar. These characteristics and their implications for remote sensing will be reviewed for the four direct scatter processes and for the differential absorption technique. The characteristic behavior of the direct backscatter technique is different from the differential absorption technique with respect to sensitivity, concentration of material, and the effect of range. For these reasons, the direct backscatter processes cannot be compared directly to the differential absorption technique. The two techniques can be compared for specific material and system configurations, however. This paper describes specific lidar system configurations and gives the calculated performance level for these systems in both the direct backscatter and differential absorption modes for a wide variety of pollutant monitoring situations. The results of this comparison of techniques indicate that the differential- absorption lidar technique can provide adequate range and sensitivity for a wide variety of pollution monitoring applications involving a number of interesting pollutant materials. No other single technique appears to provide these capabilities for such a wide range of materials.

Wright, M. L.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Laser Radar Study Using Resonance Absorption for Remote Detection Of Air Pollutants

A laser radar using resonance absorption has an advantage of increased detection range and sensitivity compared with that achieved by Raman or resonance back scattering. In this paper, new laser radar system using resonance absorption is proposed and results obtained from this laser radar system are discussed. NO2, SO2 gas has an absorption spectrum at 4500 A and 3000 A respectively as shown in Fig. 1. A laser light including at least a set of an absorption peak (lambda)1 and a valley (lambda)2 is emitted into a pollutant atmosphere. The light reflected with a topographical reflector or an atmospheric Mie scattering as distributed reflectors is received and divided into two wavelength components (lambda)1 and (lambda)2. The laser radar system used in the investigation is shown in Fig', 2 and consists of a dye laser transmitter, an optical receiver with a special monochrometer and a digital processer. Table 1 shows the molecular constants of NO2, and SO2 and the dye laser used in this experiment. In this system, the absolute concentration of the pollutant gas can be measured in comparison with a standard gas cell. The concentration of NO2, SO2 as low as 0.1 ppm have been measured at 100 m depth resolution. For a 1 mJ laser output, the observable range of this system achieved up to 300 m using the distributed Mie reflector. The capability and technical limitation of the system will be discussed in detail.

Igarashi, Takashi↗