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AQAST Newsletter, July 2013

Welcome to the January 2013 Newsletter of the NASA Air Quality Applied Sciences Team (AQAST). AQAST is a team of atmospheric scientists serving air quality management needs through creative use of Earth Science data and tools. We conduct a wide range of projects in partnership with air quality agencies at the local, state, regional, and national levels.

This newsletter keeps you up to date on AQAST activities. The AQAST website has more comprehensive information. Also follow us on Twitter at @NASA_AQAST. To inquire about specific projects or request assistance please contact any AQAST member, team leader Daniel Jacob, or team deputy leader Tracey Holloway.

This newsletter was produced by Daniel Jacob (AQAST leader) and Bob Yantosca (AQAST webmaster). Subscribe/unsubscribe by email to Bob Yantosca.. Access previous newsletters here.

AQAST Semiannual Meetings

AQAST meetings are held on a semiannual schedule and bring together team members, air quality managers, and research and applications partners.

5th AQAST Meeting (AQAST5): Jue 4-6, 2013 at the University of Maryland at College Park

AQAST5 was held on June 4-6, 2013 at the University of Maryland at College Park. Our hosts were AQAST members Russ Dickerson and Bryan Duncan, together with Ana Prados who leads the NASA NASA Applied Remote SEnsing Training (ARSET). The meeting attracted over 130 attendees including air quality managers from a number of state, regional, and national agencies. Click here for the meeting program and links to the presentations.

6th AQAST Meeting (AQAST6): January 15-17, 2014 at the University of Texas at Austin

The next AQAST meeting (AQAST6) will be held January 15-17 (Wednesday-Friday) at the University of Texas at Austin. Our hosts will be Prof. David Allen from U. Texas Austin and AQAST member Dan Cohan. Mark your calendars!

AQAST Project Highlights

Air quality and health impacts of June 2012 Colorado wildfires

– A Joined Collaboration between NCAR, CDPHE, and Emory University (Gabriele Pfister and David Edwards)

Colorado experienced one of its most costly and highest impact fire seasons in June 2012. Much of the State was blanketed in smoke because of large events that included the High Park fire near Ft. Collins and the Waldo Canyon fire near Colorado Springs. Fire plumes transported from wildfires in Wyoming and New Mexico further impacted the Colorado Front Range. NCAR, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and Emory University are working together to examine the impact that these fires had on local air quality and human health. This will be achieved through an integrated analysis of surface and satellite observations, WRF-Chem modeling including assimilation of meteorological observations, and health data. This work will provide a baseline for evaluating methods to be used for exceedance demonstrations and for establishing predictive tools to support agencies in issuing health advisors during wildfire events. Christine Wiedinmyer (NCAR), supporting the work by providing fire emission estimates, recently discussed this project as well as other aspects of air pollution from wildfires on Colorado Public Radio: click here for link.

New MODIS aerosol product available

The new MODIS Level 3 aerosol product from AQAST member Edward Hyer has now been transitioned to NASA LANCE. Click here for press release. Satellite detection of aerosols, or particles in the atmosphere, provides one of the most useful remote sensing products for air quality analysis. This new MODIS product supports a wide range of applications for air quality management. It provides global, gridded aerosol optical depth (AOD) at a resolution of 1/2-degree latitude-longitude in near-real time, for immediate access. In addition to reducing error in the AOD retrievals, the product includes quantitative uncertainty estimates at each data point. Contact Edward Hyer for more information.

AQAST Meetings

AQAST4 meeting at California Air Resources Board

The 4th biannual AQAST meeting was held on Nov 29-30 2012 at the California Air Resources Board in Sacramento. It was a highly successful meeting by all accounts and provided AQAST with a better understanding of the air quality issues facing California. Click here to access the presentations from the meeting.

AQAST sessions at the Fall 2012 AGU meeting

AQAST organized a special session, "Application of satellite data to serve air quality management needs ", at the Fall 2012 meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco on December 3-7. The session attracted 69 oral presentations spread over a full day as well as a half-day poster session. We also held a Town Hall to share information about AQAST and receive input from air quality managers and Earth Scientists interested in air quality applications.

Next AQAST meeting on June 4-6, 2013 at the University of Maryland

The next biannual AQAST meeting will be held on June 4-6 at the University of Maryland in College Park, hosted by AQAST member Russ Dickerson.The meeting will be free and open to all. Please mark your calendars. More information will be forthcoming and e-mailed to AQAST Newsletter subscribers.

New AQAST publications (with links)

Future fires in Southern California

Yue, X., L.J. Mickley, and J.A. Logan, Projection of wildfire activity in southern California in the mid-21st century, submitted to Clim. Dyn., 2013. Full paper

A better way to see fires from space

David Peterson, Jun Wang, Charles Ichoku, Edward Hyer, Vincent Ambrosia, A sub-pixel-based calculation of fire radiative power from MODIS observations: 1: Algorithm development and initial assessment, Remote Sensing of Environment, Available online 11 December 2012, ISSN 0034-4257, 10.1016/j.rse.2012.10.036. (Link)

Understanding wintertime aerosol nitrate pollution in the Great Lakes Region

C. Stanier, A. Singh, W. Adamski, J. Baek, M. Caughey, G. Carmichael, E. Edgerton, D. Kenski, M. Koerber, J. Oleson, T. Rohlf, S.R. Lee, N. Riemer, S. Shaw, S. Sousan, S.N. Spak (2012). Overview of the LADCO winter nitrate study: Hourly ammonia, nitric acid and PM2.5 composition at an urban and rural site pair during PM2.5 episodes in the U.S. Great Lakes region, Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics, 12, 11037-11056, doi: 10.5194/acp-12-11037-2012. Link to full article

Older publications

See the AQAST publications webpage for the full list of AQAST publications.

New AQAST presentations (with links)

Presentations from the AQAST5 meeting (June 4-6, 2013)

Click here for the meeting agenda with links to all presentations.

DISCOVER-AQ ad the uses of remote sensing in air quality and climate studies

presented by Russ Dickerson at Brookhaven National Lab, May 16, 2013. [Download ppt]

What can we learn from observations and modeling to inform inventory estimates?

presented by Russ Dickerson to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Air Management Association, Inc. (MARAMA), February 27, 2013. (Download pdf)

Building a next generation public health toolkit for local air pollution events

presented by Scott Spak at the Iowa Environmental Health Association Fall Conference, Marshalltown, IA, October 23, 2012. (Download pdf)

Other AQAST news

Tracey Holloway awarded undergraduate research mentor award

Tracey Holloway was awarded the 2012 Undergraduate Research Mentor Award from the Council on Undergraduate Research in the Geosciences (GeoCUR). Holloway accepted the award at the Charlotte, NC, meeting of the Geological Society of America, where she presented a talk on engaging undergraduates in air quality research with satellite data, ground-based measurements, and atmospheric models. Click here for more info and podcast online.