Sandbox

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 Communications

AQAST has great success stories to tell, but how do we tell them best? We have taken recent actions to improve communications outside the Team:

Tracey Holloway appointed deputy leader

AQAST member Tracey Holloway was appointed deputy leader in December 2012. She assumes specific responsibility for external relations with the public, air quality agencies, and NASA. Tracey has had training in public outreach and engagement as a 2011 Stanford University Leopold Leadership Fellow, media training at the University of Wisconsin--Madison, and outreach experience in her role as research center director at the University of Wisconsin--Madison. Air quality managers are encouraged to contact Tracey if there are stories, data, or images that would be helpful.

Twitter

AQAST is now on Twitter. You can read our content (e.g. links to AQAST papers, presentations, press coverage, etc.) and read our "re-tweets" (flagging tweets related to AQAST issues) by clicking here: https://twitter.com/NASA_AQAST. Sign up as a "follower" and stay on top of AQAST news! To get started on Twitter yourself, here is a good getting-started guide.

New journalist on staff

Sarah Wiltman, a recent journalism graduate from the University of Wisconsin, is now working part-time with Tracey Holloway to write AQAST stories and promote AQAST activities. Sarah and Tracey can help AQAST members work with their home institutions press office, promote press releases, and fill gaps in coverage of new stories or resources. They are planning to build capacity in data visualization as well.

New directory of AQAST members

The AQAST members' directory has received a major upgrade to list areas of expertise, photos, webpage links, and contact information for each member. Use it to find the members with the expertise that you seek!

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)

How do different source regions contribute to climate warming from ozone?

Bowman, K., and D. K. Henze (2012), Attribution of direct ozone radiative forcing to spatially resolved emissions, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L22704, doi:10.1029/2012GL053274. Abstract

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 November 29-30 AQAST meeting at the California Air Resources Board

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

Using AIRS observations to predict Asian and stratospheric influences on Western U.S. high surface ozone events

presented by Meiyun Lin at the NASA Sounder Science Team Meeting, Greenbelt, MA, November 2012. [Download ppt]

Understanding the spatial resolution of satellite observations of aerosols: the example of MODIS

presented by Edward Hyer at the AWMA Specialty Conference on Air Quality and Visibility, Whitefish, MT, 26 September 2012. (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.