Remote Sensing of Global Fire Patterns, Aerosol Optical Thickness, and Carbon Monoxide During April 1994

Fires play a crucial role in several ecosystems. They are routinely used to burn forests in order to accommodate the needs of the expanding population, clear land for agricultural purposes, eliminate weeds and pests, regenerate nutrients in grazing and crop lands and produce energy for cooking and heating purposes. Most of the fires on earth are related to biomass burning in the tropics, although they are not confined to these latitudes. The boreal and tundra regions also experience fires on a yearly basis. The current study examines global fire patterns, Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) and carbon monoxide concentrations during April 9-19, 1994. Recently, global Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data at nadir ground spatial resolution of 1 km are made available through the NASA/NOAA Pathfinder project. These data from April 9-19, 1994 are used to map fires over the earth. In summary, our analysis shows that fires from biomass burning appear to be the dominant factor for increased tropospheric CO concentrations as measured by the MAPS. The vertical transport of CO by convective activities, along with horizontal transport due to the prevailing winds, are responsible for the observed spatial distribution of CO

MicroMAPS CO Measurements over North America and Europe during Summer-Fall 2004

The MicroMAPS instrument is a nadir-viewing, gas filter-correlated radiometer which operating in the 4.67 micrometer fundamental band of carbon monoxide. Originally designed and built for a space mission, this CO remote sensor is being flown in support of satellite validation and science instrument demonstrations for potential UAV applications. The MicroMAPS instrument system, as flown on Proteus, was designed by a senior student design project in the Aerospace Engineering Department, Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, VA. and then revised by Systems Engineers at NASA Langley. The final instrument system was integrated and tested at NASA LaRC, in partnership with Scaled Composites and Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC). VSGC supervised the fabrication of the nacelle that houses the instrument system on the right rear tail boom of Proteus. Full system integration and flight testing was performed at Scaled Composites, in Mojave, in June 2004. Its successful performance enabled participation in four international science missions on Proteus: in 2004, INTEX -NA over eastern North America in July, ADRIEX over the Mediterranean region and EAQUATE over the United Kingdom region in September,and TWP-ICE over Darwin, Australia and the surrounding oceans in Jan-Feb 2006. These flights resulted in nearly 300 hours of data. In parallel with the engineering developments, theoretical radiative transfer models were developed specifically for the MicroMAPS instrument system at the University of Virginia, Mechanical Engineering Department by a combined undergraduate and graduate student team. With technical support from Resonance Ltd. in June 2005, the MicroMAPS instrument was calibrated for the conditions under which the Summer-Fall 2004 flights occurred. The analyses of the calibration data, combined with the theoretical radiative transfer models, provide the first data reduction for the science flights reported here. These early results and comparisons with profile data from the NASA DC-8, the coincident AIRS CO retrievals, and selected CO measurements from the MOZAIC program will be presented

Ground-based and airborne observations of carbon monoxide during NASA Measurements of Air Pollution from Satellite (MAPS) missions SRL-1 and SRL-2

Surface carbon monoxide (CO) data were acquired continuously at Heimaey, Iceland (63°24′N, 20° 18′W), Mace Head, Ireland (53° 19′N, 9°54′W), and Ragged Point, Barbados (13°15′N, 59°30′W), during April and October 1994, in support of Measurement of Air Pollution From Satellite (MAPS) Space Radar Laboratory (SRL) missions SRL-1 and SRL-2, respectively, measuring middle tropospheric CO from space. Observed median CO levels from the three surface sites during these two MAPS missions approximate the monthly median for 1994 and are mostly typical of data from prior years. For two of the sites, computed mission isentropic back-trajectory ensemble probability fields are compared to seasonal (March-May and September-November) probability fields for 1994 and 1986-1995. Such comparisons help gauge the representativeness of (1) observed surface air quality at, and (2) isentropic flow to, these sites during the mission periods, in terms of intraseasonal and interannual variability. Results appear consistent with longer-term flow climatological data and confirm the SRL-1 and SRL-2 mission periods are generally representative of the climatology applicable to these sites for the time of year. Lower free troposphere in situ CO data were acquired from an aircraft over the Maryland Eastern Shore on April 14 and October 3, 4, and 6. During the April flight a nearly linear gradient in CO with pressure from 1000-650 mbar of 225-150 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) was observed. At 650 mbar, CO was quite steady around 150 ppbv; this value compares favorably with the MAPS CO data for the closest 5° x 5° grid box averaged April 13-15 of 105-120 ppbv. During SRL-2 a three flight CO average of 125 ppbv observed at ∼725 mbar is in good agreement with the closest MAPS 5° x 5° grid box averaged October 3-7 of 90-105 ppbv. A layer of elevated CO at 845-740 mbar, most likely the result of synoptic-scale transport, was observed during the October flights and seen to dissipate with time. The MAPS cloud-filtered second-by-second CO data during concurrent shuttle overflights show temporal structure consistent with the in situ observations, indicating the MAPS weighting function may be capable of discerning features at lower altitudes than thought previously. Copyright 1998 by the American Geophysical Union

NASA\u27s Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Project: Results of the August 1999 Aerosol Measurement Intercomparison Workshop, T-38 Aircraft Sampling Phase

During August 1-14, 1999, NASA\u27s Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Project (AEAP) convened a workshop at the NASA Langley Research Center to try to determine why such a wide variation in aerosol emissions indices and chemical and physical properties has been reported by various independent AEAP-supported research teams trying to characterize the exhaust emissions of subsonic commercial aircraft. This workshop was divided into two phases, a laboratory phase and a field phase. The laboratory phase consisted of supplying known particle number densities (concentrations) and particle size distributions to a common mainfold for the participating research teams to sample and analyze. The field phase was conducted on an aircraft run-up pad. Participating teams actually sampled aircraft exhaust generated by a Langley T-38 Talon aircraft at 1 and 9m behind the engine at engine powers ranging from 48 to 100 percent. Results from laboratory phase of this intercomparison workshop are reported in this paper

NASA\u27s Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Project: Results of the August 1999 Aerosol Measurement Intercomparison Workshop, Laboratory Phase

During August 1-14, 1999, NASA\u27s Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Project (AEAP) convened a workshop at the NASA Langley Research Center to try to determine why such a wide variation in aerosol emissions indices and chemical and physical properties have been reported by various independent AEAP-supported research teams trying to characterize the exhaust emissions of subsonic commercial aircraft. This workshop was divided into two phases, a laboratory phase and a field phase. The laboratory phase consisted of supplying known particle number densities (concentrations) and particle size distributions to a common manifold for the participating research teams to sample and analyze. The field phase was conducted on an aircraft run-up pad. Participating teams actually sampled aircraft exhaust generated by a Langley T-38 Talon aircraft at 1 and 9 m behind the engine at engine powers ranging from 48 to 100 percent. Results from the laboratory phase of this intercomparison workshop are reported in this paper