2006 TexAQS / GoMACCSTexas Air Quality Study / Gulf of Mexico Atmospheric Composition and Climate StudyNOAA Component
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Satellite ObservationsRetrievals of aerosol and trace gas information from current research and operational satellites have great potential to assist in several of the TexAQS/GoMACCS science objectives. Instruments on NASA and NOAA satellites are currently able to observe several of EPA's criteria pollutants (Table 7). While polar-orbiting satellites (e.g., MODIS) provide coverage once a day globally, geostationary satellites (e.g., GOES) provide coverage over the continental United States once every fifteen minutes. A multiple platform and sensor approach, integrating in situ and satellite data with modeling, might be essential to address TexAQS/GoMACCS science objectives. A list of NOAA and NASA satellites and their measurement capabilities.
* Available through NOAA in near real time Although satellite data has some disadvantages compared with other means of observing ozone and aerosols, the advantages of including satellite information currently outweigh the disadvantages. Accuracies of satellite retrieved aerosol optical depths and trace gases are not as good as measurements made from ground because satellite retrievals tend to have higher uncertainties. These uncertainties are associated with converting slant column retrievals to column amounts and isolating the tropospheric column from the total column in the case of trace gases. For aerosol retrievals, difficulties in modeling aerosol type and variability in surface reflectance lead to large uncertainties. Nevertheless, while the ability to measure trace gases and aerosols at the desired spatial resolution, temporal resolution, and accuracy might not be realized for several years, the benefits of exploiting these measurements for air quality studies are so substantial that the validation required to exploit them should be pursued immediately. Satellite data of aerosols and trace gases have three potential applications for the TexAQS/GoMACCS field campaign:
Retrospective looks at the data collected during TexAQS/GoMACCS: Using the satellite data in modeling studies: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NOAA's Atmospheric Research Campaign
NOAA Research Earth System Research Laboratory Chemical Sciences Division
|