Jassim A. Al-Saadi

IMPROVING NATIONAL AIR QUALITY FORECASTS WITH SATELLITE AEROSOL OBSERVATIONS

Accurate air quality forecasts can allow for mitigation of the health risks associated with high levels of air pollution. During September 2003, a team of NASA, NOAA, and EPA researchers demonstrated a prototype tool for improving fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air quality forecasts using satellite aerosol observations. Daily forecast products were generated from a near-real-time fusion of multiple input data products, including aerosol optical depth (AOD) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)/Earth Observing System (EOS) instrument on the NASA Terra satellite, PM2.5 concentration from over 300 state/local/national surface monitoring stations, meteorological fields from the NOAA/NCEP Eta Model, and fire locations from the NOAA/National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WF_ABBA) product. The products were disseminated via a Web interface to a small g...

The United States' next generation of atmospheric composition and coastal ecosystem measurements : NASA's Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) Mission

The Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) mission was recommended by the National Research Councils (NRCs) Earth Science Decadal Survey to measure tropospheric trace gases and aerosols and coastal ocean phytoplankton, water quality, and biogeochemistry from geostationary orbit, providing continuous observations within the field of view. To fulfill the mandate and address the challenge put forth by the NRC, two GEO-CAPE Science Working Groups (SWGs), representing the atmospheric composition and ocean color disciplines, have developed realistic science objectives using input drawn from several community workshops. The GEO-CAPE mission will take advantage of this revolutionary advance in temporal frequency for both of these disciplines. Multiple observations per day are required to explore the physical, chemical, and dynamical processes that determine tropospheric composition and air quality over spatial scales ranging from urban to continental, and over temporal scales ranging from diu...

REMOTE SENSING OF TROPOSPHERIC POLLUTION FROM SPACE

We review the progress of tropospheric trace gas observations and address the need for additional measurement capabilities as recommended by the National Research Council. Tropospheric measurements show pollution in the Northern Hemisphere as a result of fossil fuel burning and a strong seasonal dependence with the largest amounts of carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide in the winter and spring. In the summer, when photochemistry is most intense, photochemically generated ozone is found in large concentrations over and downwind from where anthropogenic sources are largest, such as the eastern United States and eastern China. In the tropics and the subtropics, where photon flux is strong throughout the year, trace gas concentrations are driven by the abundance of the emissions. The largest single tropical source of pollution is biomass burning, as can be seen readily in carbon monoxide measurements, but lightning and biogenic trace gases may also contribute to trace gas variability. Although substantive pr...

Intercomparison of near-real-time biomass burning emissions estimates constrained by satellite fire data

We compare biomass burning emissions estimates from four different techniques that use satellite based fire products to determine area burned over regional to global domains. Three of the techniques use active fire detections from polar-orbiting MODIS sensors and one uses detections and instantaneous fire size estimates from geostationary GOES sensors. Each technique uses a different approach for estimating trace gas and particulate emissions from active fires. Here we evaluate monthly area burned and CO emission estimates for most of 2006 over the contiguous United States domain common to all four techniques. Two techniques provide global estimates and these are also compared. Overall we find consistency in temporal evolution and spatial patterns but differences in these monthly estimates can be as large as a factor of 10. One set of emission estimates is evaluated by comparing model CO predictions with satellite observations over regions where biomass burning is significant. These emissions are consistent with observations over the US but have a high bias in three out of four regions of large tropical burning. The large-scale evaluations of the magnitudes and characteristics of the differences presented here are a necessary first step toward an ultimate goal of reducing the large uncertainties in biomass burning emission estimates, thereby enhancing environmental monitoring and prediction capabilities.

The contribution of mixing in Lagrangian photochemical predictions of polar ozone loss over the Arctic in summer 1997

Measurements from the Halogen Occultation Experiment, together with assimilated winds, temperatures, and diabatic heating rates from the NASA Goddard data assimilation office, are used in the NASA Langley Research Center trajectory-photochemical model to compute photochemistry along three-dimensional air parcel trajectories for the Northern Hemisphere for the period March through September 1997. These calculations provide a global perspective for the interpretation of constituent measurements made from the ER-2 platform during the Photochemistry of Ozone Loss in the Arctic Region in Summer aircraft campaign. An important component of the model is a parameterization of sub-grid-scale diffusive mixing. The parameterization uses an n-member mixing approach which includes an efficiency factor that enhances the mixing in regions where strain dominates the large-scale flow. Model predictions of O 3 and CH 4 are compared with in situ measurements made from the ER-2. Comparison of the in situ data with model predictions, conducted with and without diffusive mixing, illustrates the contribution that irreversible mixing makes in establishing observed tracer-tracer correlations. Comparisons made for an ER-2 flight in late April 1997 show that irreversible mixing was important in establishing observed tracer-tracer correlations during spring 1997. Comparisons made in late June 1997, when filaments of very low N 2 O and CH 4 were observed, indicate that remnants of air from the polar vortex survived unmixed in the low stratosphere 6 weeks after the breakup of the polar vortex in May. The results demonstrate that the sub-grid-scale mixing parameterization used in the model is effective not only for strong mixing conditions in late winter and early spring, but also for relatively weak mixing conditions that prevail in summer.

Ozone production in boreal fire smoke plumes using observations from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument

[1] We examine the photochemical processes governing the production of ozone in smoke from large Siberian fires that formed in July 2006 using colocated O 3 and CO profiles as measured by the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer as well as NO 2 and aerosol optical depths as measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument. The Real-Time Air Quality Model (RAQMS) is used to explain the observed variations of O 3 . Enhanced levels of ozone up to 90 parts per billion (ppbv) are observed near and away from the Siberian fires (60°N and 100°E) when sunlight and NO x are available. We also observe significantly low O 3 amounts (less then 30 ppbv) in the smoke plume from Siberian fires in conjunction with optically thick aerosols. Despite this wide variance in observed ozone values, the mean ozone value for all observations of the smoke plume is close to background levels of approximately 55 ppbv in the free troposphere. Using RAQMS we show that optically thick aerosols in the smoke plume can substantially reduce the photochemical production of ozone and this can explain why the observed mean ozone amount for all plume observations is not much larger than background values of 55 ppbv. However, the anonymously low ozone amounts of 30 ppbv or less point toward other unresolved processes that reduce ozone below background levels in the plume.

Large‐scale chemical evolution of the Arctic vortex during the 1999/2000 winter: HALOE/POAM III Lagrangian photochemical modeling for the SAGE III—Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) campaign

Abstract : The LaRC Lagrangian Chemical Transport Model (LaRC LCTM) is used to simulate the kinematic and chemical evolution of an ensemble of trajectories initialized from Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) and Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement (POAM) III atmospheric soundings over the SAGE III-Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) campaign period. Initial mixing ratios of species which are not measured by HALOE or POAM III are specified using sunrise and sunset constituent CH(4) and constituent PV regressions obtained from the LaRC IMPACT model, a global three dimensional general circulation and photochemical model. Ensemble averaging of the trajectory chemical characteristics provides a vortex-average perspective of the photochemical state of the Arctic vortex. The vortex-averaged evolution of ozone, chlorine, nitrogen species, and ozone photochemical loss rates is presented. Enhanced chlorine catalyzed ozone loss begins in mid-January above 500 K, and the altitude of the peak loss gradually descends during the rest of the simulation. Peak vortex averaged loss rates of over 60 ppbv/day occur in early March at 450 K. Vortex averaged loss rates decline after mid- March. The accumulated photochemical ozone loss during the period from 1 December 1999 to 30 March 2000 peaks at 450 K with net losses of near 2.2 ppmv. The predicted distributions of CH4, O(3), denitrification, and chlorine activation are compared to the distributions obtained from in situ measurements to evaluate the accuracy of the simulations. The comparisons show best agreement when diffusive tendencies are included in the model calculations, highlighting the importance of this process in the Arctic vortex. Sensitivity tests examining the large-scale influence of orographically generated gravity wave temperature anomalies are also presented. Results from this sensitivity study show that mountain-wave temperature perturbations contribute an additional 2-8% O(3) loss during the 1999/2000 winter.

Response of middle atmosphere chemistry and dynamics to volcanically elevated sulfate aerosol: Three‐dimensional coupled model simulations

The NASA Langley Research Center Interactive Modeling Project for Atmospheric Chemistry and Transport (IMPACT) model has been used to examine the response of the middle atmosphere to a large tropical stratospheric injection of sulfate aerosol, such as that following the June 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo. The influence of elevated aerosol on heterogeneous chemical processing was simulated using a three-dimensional climatology of surface area density (SAD)developed using observations made from the Halogen Occultation Experiment, Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II, and Stratospheric Aerosol Measurement satellite instruments beginning in June 1991. Radiative effects of the elevated aerosol were represented by monthly mean zonally averaged heating perturbations obtained from a study conducted with the European Center/Hamburg (ECHAM4) general circulation model combined with an observationally derived set of aerosol parameters. Two elevated-aerosol simulations were integrated for 31/2 years following the volcanic injection. One simulation included only the aerosol radiative perturbation, and one simulation included both the radiative perturbation and the elevated SAD. These perturbation simulations are compared with multiple-year control simulations to isolate relative contributions of transport and heterogeneous chemical processing. Significance of modeled responses is assessed through comparison with interannual variability. Dynamical and photochemical contributions to ozone decreases are of comparable magnitude. Important stratospheric chemical/dynamical feedback effects are shown, as ozone reductions modulate aerosol-induced heating by up to 10% in the lower stratosphere and 25% in the middle stratosphere. Dynamically induced changes in chemical constituents which propagate into the upper stratosphere are still pronounced at the end of the simulations.

Tropospheric emissions: monitoring of pollution (TEMPO)

TEMPO was selected in 2012 by NASA as the first Earth Venture Instrument, for launch circa 2018. It will measure atmospheric pollution for greater North America from space using ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy. TEMPO measures from Mexico City to the Canadian tar sands, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, hourly and at high spatial resolution (~2 km N/S×4.5 km E/W at 36.5°N, 100°W). TEMPO provides a tropospheric measurement suite that includes the key elements of tropospheric air pollution chemistry. Measurements are from geostationary (GEO) orbit, to capture the inherent high variability in the diurnal cycle of emissions and chemistry. The small product spatial footprint resolves pollution sources at sub-urban scale. Together, this temporal and spatial resolution improves emission inventories, monitors population exposure, and enables effective emission-control strategies. TEMPO takes advantage of a commercial GEO host spacecraft to provide a modest cost mission that measures the spectra required to retrieve O3, NO2, SO2, H2CO, C2H2O2, H2O, aerosols, cloud parameters, and UVB radiation. TEMPO thus measures the major elements, directly or by proxy, in the tropospheric O3 chemistry cycle. Multi-spectral observations provide sensitivity to O3 in the lowermost troposphere, substantially reducing uncertainty in air quality predictions. TEMPO quantifies and tracks the evolution of aerosol loading. It provides near-real-time air quality products that will be made widely, publicly available. TEMPO will launch at a prime time to be the North American component of the global geostationary constellation of pollution monitoring together with European Sentinel-4 and Korean GEMS.

Large‐scale stratospheric ozone photochemistry and transport during the POLARIS Campaign

Measurements from the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) on board the UARS satellite and assimilated winds, temperatures, and diabatic heating rates from the NASA Goddard data assimilation office (DAO) are used with the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) Lagrangian photochemical model to compute 3-D air parcel trajectories with photochemistry for all Northern Hemisphere HALOE observations during the period March-September 1997. Results from ensemble means of the photochemical trajectory calculations provide a global perspective for the interpretation of constituent measurements made from the ER-2 and balloon platforms during the POLARIS aircraft campaign. Lagrangian photochemical predictions are shown to compare favorably with ER-2, balloon, Total Ozone Mapping Spectometer (TOMS), and subsequent coincident HALOE observations. Model predictions show large-scale photochemical ozone loss in high latitudes at ER-2 flight altitudes of over 10% per month in June and July, in good agreement with steady state photochemical calculations constrained with ER-2 observations of radical and long-lived species. Largest summertime photochemical ozone losses (over 1.4 ppmv/month) are found to occur poleward of 60°N above 30 mbar, in good agreement with steady state photochemical calculations constrained with observations from the balloon-borne Fourier transform infrared solar absorption spectrometer (MkIV) instrument. Summertime polar photochemical ozone losses are driven largely by NO x chemistry and are largest for air parcels with high NO x /NO y ratios that have experienced continuous sunlight for several days. Differences between predicted net changes in ozone and changes due to photochemistry are used to estimate residual changes due to transport processes. Photochemical and residual transport tendencies tend to be of similar magnitude but opposite sign. Photochemical loss of ozone tends to outweigh positive transport tendencies in high latitudes, while upwelling of low ozone below the tropical ozone maximum moderates photochemical production there. The estimated transport tendencies are generally consistent with expectations based on transformed Eulerian circulation derived from the DAO assimilated data and the mean ozone distribution. A net (photochemical plus transport) ozone decrease of over 0.2 ppmv/ month is predicted throughout the middle and lower stratosphere poleward of 70°N during the summer months.