Biomass burning is considered to be a major source of trace gas species and aerosol particles which play a vital role in tropospheric chemistry and climate. Anthropogenic biomass burning has largely expanded in the last 15 years, due to increased deforestation practices in the Amazon Basin, as well as to clear land for shifting cultivation in South America, southern Asia, and Africa. Biomass burning produces large amounts of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide (CO), water, hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides, and smoke particles

Christopher, S. A.

Connors, V. S.

Vulcan, D. V.

Welch, R. M.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

NASA-¢R-205109 Ro_ntee #or. _e _'e_nt vol_e ol _e eJehu_
ConfereP, c4t on Satelllto Meteorology and
Oceanography. 2B Jan - 2 Feb 1996. Atlamra. GA by
_e AMS. Boston. MA
P3.28 Regional Comparisons of Satellite (AVHRR) and Space Shuttle
(MAPS) Derived Estimates of CO and Aerosol Concentrations
D. V. Vulcan', S. A. Christopher and R. M. Welch
Institute of Atmospheric Sciences
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
Rapid City, SD 57701-3995
V.S. Connors
//-..?,-7 /
Langley Research Center
Atmospheric Sciences Division
Hampton, Virginia 23681-0001
1. INTRODUCTION
Biomass burning is considered to be a major
source of trace gas species and aerosol particles (Logan
et al., 1981) which play a vital role in tropospheric
chemistry and climate (Crutzen and Andreae, 1990).
Anthropogenic biomass burning has largely expanded
in the last 15 years, due to increased deforestation
practices in the Amazon Basin, as well as to clear land
for shifting cultivation in South America, southeast
Asia, and Africa. Biomass burning produces large
amounts of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide (CO),
water, hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides, and smoke parti-
cles (Crutzen et al., 1979).
Recem estimates have shown that about 114
Tg of aerosol particles is produced yearly in the tropics
through biomass burning (Penner et al., 1992). These
particles affect boundary layer cloud microphysics by
increasing the amount of available cloud condensation
nuclei (CCN) _,adke, 1989), and by decreasing the
cloud drop size ('Kaufi'nan and NakajLma, 1993). Aero-
sol particles have a cooLing effect on climate, both di-
rectly scatteringtheincomingsolarradiationand indi-
rectly by modifying the shortwave reflective properties
of clouds by acting as cloud condensation nuclei
(Charlson et aL, 1987).
Biomass burning is also an important source
of carbon monoxide, which is one of the main reactive
trace gases in the atmosphere, and which plays an im-
portant role in tropospheric chemistry (Badr and Prob-
err, 1994 a,b). Carbon monoxide is produced naturally
through oxidation of methane and other hydrocaxbons,
and by anthropogenicactivities.At thistime,itisbe-
lievedthat the amount of CO produced by natural
sourcesiscomparable to the amount of CO produced
by anthropogenicsources(Badr and Probert,1994 b).
The technologicalactivitiesinthe northernhemisphere
and biomassburninginthe tropicsareconsideredtobe
the main anthropogenicsources.Ithas alsobeen esti-
mated thatthe amount of CO emittedfrom biomass
burning equals the CO emitted from industrialized
pollution(Logan etaI.,1981,Watson etal.,1990).
In 1994 measurements of CO mixing ratios
were performed usingthe MAPS (Measurement ofAir
Pollutionfrom Satellites)instrument,installedonboard
the space shuttle,duringthe 9 through 19 April,and
30 September through II October, missions.Large
fireswere observed over southeast Asia, Indonesia
(New Guinea and Borneo), and much of Australia
Scatteredfireswere also observed in centralSouth
America, and Africa.Satelliteimages and space shuttle
photographs show giantsmoke and haze clouds pro-
duced by thesefires,which extendedover thousands of
kilometers. Over these regions MAPS also detected
enhanced CO mixing ratios over and downstream of
the burning areas. In this study, the April and October
data from MAPS measurements are compared with the
satellite (AVHRR) estimates of CO mixing ratios using
the method proposed by Kaufman et aL (1990). Coin-
cident AVHRR LAC data is used to detect fires and
smoke produced through biomass burning. The geosta-
tionary satellite data and the ECNfWF model results
will be used to examine the conditions necessary for
the transport and redistribution of the CO from the
boundary layer into the free troposphere.
Section2 presents the data used inthisstudy,
section3 includesthe methodology and preliminary
results,and section4 summarizes thispresentwork.
• ContributingAuthor'sAddress: Institute of
Atmospheric Sciences, South Dakota School of
Mines and Technology, 501 East Saint Joseph
Street, Rapid City, SD 57701-3995
8TMCONF.ON SAT.MET.& OCEAN. 479
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19970026592 2020-06-16T01:27:36+00:00Z
2. DATA
In this study, selected AVHRR LAC images
coinciding with the April 1994 MAPS mission are
used to accurately detect fires and smoke. The area
studied is the border of India with Burma, and north
and central Burma, where large fires were reported by
the astronauts. The nominal spatial resolution is about
1.1 kin at nadir, which is adequate for smoke and fire
detection (Kaufman and Nakajima, 1993).
The MAPS instrument, installed onboard the
space shuttle, is a nadir-viewing, gas filter correlation
radiometer that is designed to measure the global dis-
tribution of middle tropospheric carbon monoxide
mixing ratios (Reichle eta/., 1986, 1990). This passive
remote sensor maintains high effective spectral resolu-
tion in the 4.67 )_m fundamental band of CO. The in-
stantaneous field of view (FOV) is 20 km 2 at the sur-
face of the Earth, and the data are sampled once each
second. The combination of FOV, sampling rate, in-
strument response time, and spacecraR speed are such
that essentially independent measurements are oh-
rained every 50 km along the sub-satellite track. A de-
tailed description of the instrument technique and cali-
bration has been reported in several papers (Reichle et
al., 1986, 1990, WaLlio etal., 1992).
. METHODOLOGY AND
PRELIMINARY RESULTS
3.1 Fire and Smoke Detection using A VttRR DATA
Fire detection is performed based on the
method describedby Kaufman et al.(1990).The mid-
IR (3.7 _an - channel 3, _T3") and the infrared chan-
nels (10.8 _.m - channel 4, "T4") of the AVI-IRR data
are used to monitor the number of fires. The first
condition(T3_319°K) requires thata pixelbe closeto
the 320K saturationleVel.The second condition
(T3>T4+I0°K) requixesthatthe radiativetemperature
inchannel3 be much largerthan thatofchannel 4,in
orderto ensure thatthe pixelis not a warm surface;
and thethirdcondition(T4>255°K) overrulesthe pos-
sibilityof saturating the pixel from highly reflective
clouds.
For a selectedsatelliteimage (notshown) of
about 800kin x 800kin, over Burma, 489 pixels are
identified as fires. The fire areas stand out distinctly,
having higher temperatures at 3.7 than at 10.8
Figure I shows a west toeastcrosssectionthrough a
portionof the studiedarea.Over fires,the 3.7-)an
signatureincreasesharplywhen compared to10.8 van
signal.
Most aerosoldetectionschemes requirea dark
uniform background to discriminateaerosolsfrom the
underlyingterrain.The detectionofaerosoloverland
so! Fi res I
! I !
_A'-;''_''- "" " I ' ;
.... :./:,/.'..-"=.-:-.,-........
= 20 L
f '
0 ,. t
5O9 8C0 _ COO
_Txei numo#r
FigureI.West tocastcrosssectionthroughthearea
studiedinBurma (AprilII,1994 -AVHRR data)
is often more difficult due to the high albedo of the
underlying background. In this study, a new technique
based on a combinationof spectraland texturalmeas-
ures is used for aerosol detection over land. The spec-
tral combinationsthat were examined includeAVHRR
channels 2/1, (1-4)/(1+4), 1-2, 4-5, 3-4, and (3-
4)/(3+4). Based on the Gray Level Difference Vector
(GLDV) approach (e.g., Welch et al., 1988), several
textura/ features were calculated for a group of 9x9
AVHRR LAC pixels, which include 1) contrast, 2)
local homogeneity, 3) angular second moment, 4) en-
tropy, 5)mean, 6)differenceclustershade,and 7)dif-
ferenc¢clusterprominence. For smoke detection,the
combinationsthatproduced good resultswere obtained
with channel I m red, channel (I-4)/(I+4) in green,
and the texturesMEAN or CONTRAST ofchannel(I-
4)/(1+4).
3.2 Computation of CO Mixing Ratios Using MAPS
Data
Figure 2 shows the locations of the detected
fires over north and central Burma using AVHRR data,
the high CO measurements (CO/Average CO over
Central Pacific > 2) recorded by MAPS instrument,
and the pictures taken by the astronauts.
480 AMERICANMETEOROLOGICALSOCIETY
_ -_,.._L._,_--._. •_.-.--.- •:-¸-............. ...........
_-Z:"r7 i ' J_' 5_. : ' : "ti"'"__"_ ....... _........ _"i .......................
. ' i _ : • ....... I
! ! :
.... i....:................. ;........4_..; .......... ................ '
! o _;_ _.w_-R=_) ' ': : i •
.....: ................ .......,;........... ....
.... .................. ...ff_...:._ ..................... <]
]
.......t?i ..... ........
i-:i ",...........!:-.
...............',:
Figure 2: Locations of fires (489) detected using
AVHRR channels 3 and 4; pictures taken by the astro-
nauts on April 11, 1994; high CO mixing ratios over
Burma, as recorded by MAPS instrument.
200
150
>
rs
"' 100
o
50
Zonol Bane: 20N - 30N
e •
se •
• • o •
5 0egree Zonal Average
I
OI i I l
-180 -90 0 90
Oegrees Longitude
8O
Figure3:Carbonmonoxideenhancementin20N-30N
latituderangeasmeasuredbyMAPS on AprilII,
1994.
Figure 3 shows the average CO mixing ratios
recorded by MAPS instrument in the latitude band
between 20N and 30N (which includes central and
north Burma, and northeast of India), for each five
degrees longitude during April 11, 1994. Since CO
mixingratiosinthetroposphereare maximum during
Spring,itisnotsurprisingthattheaverageCO value
inthemiddletroposphere,inthe highnorthernlati-
tudes,was 120 ppbv.In the20N-30N zonalband on
ApriliI,significantvariabilityisshown inFigure3,
wherethepeakvalues(~130-160ppbv)arehighlycor-
relatedwithburningeventsinsoutheasternAsiaorthe
plumebeingtransportedaway fromthelocalsourcesm
China and South Vietnam. In areasremoved from
sourceregions,theCO mixingratiosdecreasetoabout
80ppbv(ex.overAfrica).
3.3. Estimation of the CO emission rate per fire using
A PHRR L4C data.
The method proposed by Katffman et al.
(1990) is applied for estimating the total amount of
particulates emitted due to biomass burmng. First,
AVHRR LAC imagery (3.7 txm and 10.8 Ixm channels)
is used to determine the spatial and temporal distribu-
tion of fires which are observed during the satellite
pass. Then the visible (0.63 _m) and near-IR (0.91
},u-n)channels are used to derive the aerosol optical
thickness (aerosol mass loading in the atmosphere), its
single scattering albedo (which is a measure of the
presence of graphitic carbon in the aerosol), and the
median particle size. Then an average dry aerosol
emission per fire can be calculated. The amount of CO
emitted per fire is estimated based on the relation be.
tween the amount of burned biomass, the emitted aero-
sol particles and the emitted trace gases (Kaufman et
al, 1990; Ward, 1986). The CO emission rate is e_-
mated for two fire conditions: smoldering and flaming.
The results of this study will be presented at the con-
ference.
4. SUMMARY
The amount of aerosol particles produced
yearly in the tropics through biomass bur]zing is esti-
mated to be about 114 Tg (Penner et at, 1992). It has
also been estimated that the amount of CO emitted
from biomass burning will continue to increase stead-
fly, due to increased deforestation practices in the
Amazon Basin, as well as to clear land for agricultural
practices in South America, Southe,a._ Asia, and Af-
rica. In this study we compare the CO mixing ratios
measured by the MAPS instnunent during 1994 space
shuttle missions, with estimated emissions of CO using
coincident AVHRR data (Kauf_an e¢ a[., 1990). The
new smoke detection technique is based on the combi-
nation of spectral and textural measures. The AVHRR
channel 1 and (1-4)/(1+4) ratio along with the "mean
or contrast" textural measures provided the best re-
suits. The geostationary satellite data and the ECMWF
model results will also be used in determining the cot-
8TMCONF.ONSAT.MET.& OCEAN. 481
relation between the transport of CO from sources
such as biornass burning and the high MAPS reading
recorded during the April and October missions.
5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by National Aero-
nautics and Space Admimstration grant NAGW-3740.
Thanks are extended to Connie Crandall for typing this
paper.
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482 AMERICANMETEOROLOGICALSOCIETY


Regional Comparisons of Satellite (AVHRR) and Space Shuttle (MAPS) Derived Estimates of CO and Aerosol Concentrations

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