title: Applications of the three-dimensional air quality system to western U.S. air quality: IDEA, smog blog, smog stories, airquest, and the remote sensing information gateway.
abstract: A system has been developed to combine remote sensing and ground-based measurements of aerosol concentration and aerosol light scattering parameters into a three-dimensional view of the atmosphere over the United States. Utilizing passive and active remote sensors from space and the ground, the system provides tools to visualize particulate air pollution in near real time and archive the results for retrospective analyses. The main components of the system (Infusing satellite Data into Environmental Applications [IDEA], the U.S. Air Quality Weblog [Smog Blog], Smog Stories, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's AIRQuest decision support system, and the Remote Sensing Information Gateway [RSIG]) are described, and the relationship of how data move from one system to another is outlined. To provide examples of how the results can be used to analyze specific pollution episodes, three events (two fires and one wintertime low planetary boundary layer haze) are discussed. Not all tools are useful at all times, and the limitations, including the sparsity of some data, the interference caused by overlying clouds, etc., are shown. Nevertheless, multiple sources of data help a state, local, or regional air quality analyst construct a more thorough picture of a daily air pollution situation than what one would obtain with only surface-based sensors.
authors.affiliation: Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore 21250, USA. hoff@umbc.edu
authors.forename: Raymond
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hoff
authors.forename: Hai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Nikisa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jordan
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Prados
authors.forename: Jill
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Engel-Cox
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Huff
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: Erica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zell
authors.forename: Shobha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kondragunta
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Szykman
authors.forename: Brad
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Johns
authors.forename: Fred
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dimmick
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wimmers
authors.forename: Jay
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Al-Saadi
authors.forename: Chieko
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kittaka
mesh_terms: D002140:California; D003660:Decision Support Systems, Management; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005390:Fires; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D020407:Internet; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis*; D017215:Satellite Communications; D012905:Smog; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D052638:Particulate Matter; D012905:Smog