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.
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.
Hoff
Raymond
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Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore 21250, USA. hoff@umbc.edu
Zhang
Hai
H
Jordan
Nikisa
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Prados
Ana
A
Engel-Cox
Jill
J
Huff
Amy
A
Weber
Stephanie
S
Zell
Erica
E
Kondragunta
Shobha
S
Szykman
James
J
Johns
Brad
B
Dimmick
Fred
F
Wimmers
Anthony
A
Al-Saadi
Jay
J
Kittaka
Chieko
C
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
D052638:Particulate Matter; D012905:Smog