Transport of Asian Dust to theMid-Atlantic United States:

Lidar, satellite observations and PM2.5 speciation.

Rubén Delgado, Sergio DeSouza-Machado

Joint Center for Earth Systems TechnologyUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore County

Baltimore, MD

CREST Lidar Network (CLN)Comprised of 4 lidar facilities partially supported by

NOAA’s Office of Education Educational Partnership Program Cooperative Remote Sensing Science and Technology Center.

•City College of New York (2004)New York City, NY

•Univ. of MD, Baltimore County (2001)Catonsville/Baltimore, MD

•Hampton University (2008)Hampton, VA

•Univ. Of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez (2008) Mayagüez, PR

•Remote sensing studies of the atmosphere with lidar measurements to determine the vertical distribution of aerosols (natural and anthropogenic) and gases.

•Lidar activities at UMBC support NOAA CREST Lidar Network, WMO-GALION, Maryland’s Department of the Environment and Energy Administration, NOAA and NASA satellite cal/val efforts.

•Understanding optical, chemical and physical properties of atmospheric aerosols and lower troposphere atmospheric dynamics.

•The integration of measurements of atmospheric aerosol properties contribute to an operational service in support of policy issues on air quality, energy, and climate change .

UMBC Monitoring of Atmospheric Pollution(UMAP)

Profiling Air Quality over BaltimoreUMBC Monitoring of Atmospheric Pollution (UMAP)

http://alg.umbc.edu/umap

Lidar (light detection and ranging)

Nd:YAG532, 1064 nm

PMT

APD

AtmosphereSmoke, Haze, Dust, Clouds, Aerosols

14” Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope

Transmitter Receiver

•Transport triggered by warm conveyor belts over eastern Asia [Eckhardt e. al., 2004].

•Strong winds, associated to frontal activity, provide a mechanism of injection of soil (sand) from the Gobi and Taklimakan deserts into troposphere [Merrill et al., 1989].

•Asian dust contributes 0.2-1.0 µg m-3 of the total PM2.5 mass concentration in North America, with higher frequency of transport during spring (March-May) [VanCuren and Cahill, 2002].

•Dust particles affect the concentration of gaseous pollutants and secondary aerosols components by acting as condensation surfaces and catalysts in heterogeneous reactions [Dentener et al., 1996; Wang et al., 2007].

Trans-Pacific transport of Asian Dust

Air Quality: Pollutant Transport to Maryland

• Difficult to apportion impact of long-range vs. local emissions. Determination of sources contributing to local pollution.

• Atmospheric and pollution dynamics aloft are missed by surface instruments. Insight to processes influencing the fate of pollutants in the atmosphere.

• Aloft transport is important during pollution events: pollutants aloft mix down increasing surface concentrations.

• Lidar allows real-time monitoring of the evolution of pollutants and their role during air quality events.

PM2.5 in Baltimore

http://www.epa.gov/ttn/airs/airsaqs/detaildata/downloadaqsdata.htm

Dust-storm NW China MODISFeb.24 to Mar.6 , 2012 (10-day)

AERONET SSA (March 6, 2012)

CCNY:Urban Aerosol (AM)Smoke (PM)

UMBC and HU:Urban Aerosol (AM)Dust/Smoke (PM)

15:45 UTC

19:45 UTC

17:45 UTC

21:45 UTC

GOES-AOD: Spatial-temporal variation of AOD (AOD 0.1 – 0.4)

OMI Aerosol Index

*O. Torres NASA GSFC

AIRS Infrared Dust Flag Product April 2006

*DeSouza-Machado et al., GRL, 33, L03801, 2006.

Date Date

Date

Angstrom ExponentSmall Exp.= Coarse/Large Particles

Single Scattering Albedo Positive Slope = dust

Baltimore Apr 17 Apr 20 Apr 23

PM2.55.10 4.83 9.37

PM1012.20 16.70 12.90

PM coarse 7.10 11.87 3.53

PM2.5 dust 0.97 1.81 0.53

Ca 0.06 0.14 0.03

IMPROVE Aerosol Monitoring Network

PM2.5 dust = 2.2[Al] + 2.49[Si] + 1.63[Ca] + 2.42 [Fe] + 1.94[Ti].Malm et al., J. Geophys. Res. 1994, 99, 1347–1370.

Ca: April 20, 2006

UMBC March 6, 2012 UMBC April 20, 2006

Boundary Layer Particle PollutionAOD Contribution

Before Dust Intrusion PBL AOD ~ 43%After Dust Intrusion PBL AOD ~ 83%

No Intrusion of DustPBL AOD ~ 43% (20-66 %)

Summary

•Vertical and temporal resolution of lidar aids to assess the impactof long range transport of natural and anthropogenic aerosols tolocal air quality.

•Lidar + real time ground monitoring of pollutants: characterization of temporal and spatial changes of particlepollution, oxidants, and precursors.

•Spring (March-May) Asian dust contribution ~17% (6-37%) of PM2.5 mass concentration in Baltimore.

•Dust contribution to column AOD ~ 47% (15-89%).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

NOAA/Office of Education Educational Partnership Program

Maryland Department of the EnvironmentMaryland Energy Administration

Smog Blog: http://alg.umbc.edu/usaqUMAP: http://alg.umbc.edu/umap

*The statements contained within the manuscript are not the opinions of the funding agency or the U.S. government, but reflect the author’s

opinions.

PBLH Algorithms

• Lidar and wind profilers PBL height provide continuous temporal resolution atmospheric profiles for verification and validation of forecasts and models, on whether the physics and dynamics packages are correct in models.

*Compton et al. (2013), J. Atmos. Ocean. Tech., doi:10.1175/JTECHD-12-00116.1

NASA-MODIS Apr. 9,2010

April 2010-Dust Taklimakan Desert

Madison, WI

http://lidar.ssec.wisc.edu/

CALIPSO April 17, 2010 07:30 UTC

Hampton, VA

CALIPSO April 19, 2010 06:00 UTC

*P.B. Russell et al., Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 1155-1169, 2010