Monitoring Air Pollution from Space Media Regional Training Workshop 16 th Nov 20 th Nov 2015 Shreta Ghimire International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development Kathmandu, Nepal
Why do we study air pollution? Major environmental issue. WHO more than 7 million people worldwide die every year from air pollution. Transboundary. Particulate Matter one of the hazardous pollution, harmful for human health. Air pollution in China is as bad as in India, however, PM concentration is moderate. Pakistan highest concentration of PM. Bangladesh, Nepal and India quoted unhealthy for the sensitive people
Most polluted countries in Asia Source: http://ejap.org/environmental-issues-in-asia/airpollution.html
Continued.. Air pollution can damage plants, ecosystem, human and animals. Damages buildings, monuments, and statues. Affects visibility. Asian Brown Clouds (ABC) More than 3 million people die prematurely each year from outdoor pollution and without action deaths will double by 2050 (Source: http://ejap.org/environmental-issues-in-asia/airpollution.html)
ABC 2014, Jan 18 WorldView
How do we study Air pollution Ground based network of air pollution monitoring stations local. Satellite based covers the globe. Model based over a larger area - merge satellite measurements of the entire atmosphere with ground-based measurements
Use of satellite to study the Earth Capability to monitor in near real-time, consistent and routine global measurements. Broad picture of pollution in the atmosphere - pollutant source, plume transport and dispersion. Satellite usually sums up all the pollutants in the vertical cross section of the atmosphere. Provide information for remote areas where there are no ground-based measurements. Advance warning of impending environmental events and disasters. Operate either in geostationary orbit or polar orbit (low Earth orbit). GEO satellites located ~ 36,000 Km on the equatorial plane orbit Earth with the same angular velocity as the Earth s rotation, thus provide continuous viewing of a selected portion of the earth. LEO satellites located ~ 700-800 Km are. sun-synchronous with orbital period of ~100 min. LEO satellites are most common for atmospheric measurements.
What is Remote Sensing? Remote Sensing is a method of obtaining information about the properties of an object without coming into physical contact with it. Remote sensors collect data by detecting the energy that is reflected from Earth (various objects). These sensors can be on satellites or mounted on aircraft. Use either Passive source or Active source.
Satellite based orbits Sun-synchronous Polar Orbiting Non-sun-synchronous Geostationary
CALIPSO Track Descending/Night Ascending/Day Singular/Descending Track (Please Do not cite this slide)
True Color Image WorldView Image Source: https://earthdata.nasa.gov/labs/worldview/?p=geographic&l=modis_terra_surfacereflectance_bands143,modis_aqua_correctedreflectance_truecolor(hidden),modis_t erra_correctedreflectance_truecolor,reference_labels(hidden),reference_features(hidden),coastlines&t=2015-11-01&v=-93.37726728434967,- 67.10702286257396,176.62273271565033,70.56485213742604
Derived image Source: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2010-261
Aerosol transport Smoke and smog over Indonesia. TOMS Earthprobe (22/10/97). Source: NASA/GSFC. Source: http://www.seos-project.eu/modules/world-of-images/world-of-images-c01-p03.html
Data Periodic data (daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly and annually) data are available. Majority of NASA satellites and some other satellites data are available for public use. Long term Near real time Format: HDF, netcdf, KML, GeoTiff, etc. Online Visualization tools such as Giovanni WorldView ECHO Reverb, etc.
Importance of data visualization Data visualization is important for the readers to understand the issues regarding air pollution. Easy visualization over a larger area. Presenting the data in the form of graphs, figures and map is more understandable. If the data are not visualized or interpreted properly, those data are of no use.
Online visualization http://giovanni.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/giovanni/ https://earthdata.nasa.gov/labs/worldview/ http://reverb.echo.nasa.gov/reverb/#utf8=% E2%9C%93&spatial_map=satellite&spatial _type=rectangle
GIOVANNI
WORLDVIEW
ECHO REVERB
2015 Nov 01 World View Smoke Plume Himalayas Desert Coastline Vegetation Clouds Sun Glint Swath
1-10 April 1-10 June 1-10 August 2015 Asian Haze 20-30 August 1-10 September 10-16 September
Criteria Pollutants Some of the regulated pollutants in HKH. - ground level Ozone (O 3 ) -NO X -SO X - Particulate Matter (PM)
Overview of Polar orbiting US satellites Landsat-1 joint program of Nasa and USGS provides the longest continuous space-based record. Launched in July, 1972. Provides information on environmental pollution and meteorology. Sounce: http://landsat.usgs.gov/about_landsat1.php
Continued.. Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) - radiationdetection imager that can be used for remotely determining cloud cover and the surface temperature. First applications of satellite remote sensing of aerosol Launched in October 1978, carried on TIROS (Television Infrared Observation Satellite). Latest Version AVHRR/3, first carried on NOAA-15 launched in May 1998. Source: http://noaasis.noaa.gov/noaasis/ml/avhrr.html
Continued.. GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite). Launched and developed by NASA, but turned over to NOAA for day-to-day administration. GOES-4 launched in Sep, 1980 made first vertical temp and moisture measurements. First satellite to carry Visible Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer (VISSR) atmospheric Sounder (VAS). From these cross sections, the altitudes and temperatures of clouds were determined and a 3D picture of their distribution was drawn. Frame-to-frame movement of selected clouds at different altitudes and to obtain their wind direction and speed to understand atmospheric circulation patterns. Sources: http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/text/history/goes/goes.html http://www.nasa.gov/content/goes-overview/index.html
Continued.. TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) represent the primary long-term, continuous record of global and regional trends in total ozone over the past 25 years. Measures - tropospheric aerosols, volcanic SO2. 4 TOMS successfully launched Nimbus- 7(Nov 1978- May 1993), Meteor-3 (Aug. 1991 - Dec. 1994), Earth Probe (July 1996 - current), and ADEOS (Sep. 1996 - June 1997) satellites. Source: http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/acdisc/toms
Continued.. A-Train Satellite (Afternoon Satellite) Satellite constellation of six Earth observation satellite in sun synchronous orbit ~ 705 km above the Earth. Crosses equator each day/night at around 1:30 pm/am solar time. Spaced few minutes apart from each other, so their collective observations may be used to build high-definition 3D images of earth s atmosphere and surface.
Continued.. Source: http://atrain.nasa.gov/
Satellites for Atmosphere Chemistry Atmosphere AQUA (AIRS, AMSR-E, AMSU-A, CERES, HSB, MODIS) AURA (HIRDLS, MLS, OMI, TES) CALIPSO (CALIOP, IIR, WFC) TERRA (MOPITT, MODIS, MISR) TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) UARS (Upper Atmosphere Radiation Satellite) GCOM-W1 (AMSR2) - Japan ERS -2 (GOME-1) ESA Meteosat (EUMETSAT) Kalpanasat (ISRO) Insat (ISRO) Etc.
Commonly regulated pollutants: CO Time Averaged Map of Carbon Monoxide Total Column (Daytime/Ascending) daily 1 deg. [AIRS AIRX3STD v006] mol/cm2 over 2015-11-05, Region 57E, 0N, 103E, 45N Time Averaged Map of Carbon Monoxide Total Column (Daytime/Ascending) daily 1 deg. [AIRS AIRX3STD v006] mol/cm2 over 2015-11-06, Region 57E, 0N, 103E, 45N
Commonly regulated pollutants: O 3 Time Averaged map of Ozone Total Column (Daytime/Ascending) daily 1 deg. [AIRS AIRX3STD v006] DU over 2015-08-31 2015-09-30. region 57E, 0N, 103E, 45N Time Averaged map of Ozone Total Column (Daytime/Ascending) daily 1 deg. [AIRS AIRX3STD v006] DU on 2015-08-31. region 57E, 0N, 103E, 45N
Commonly regulated pollutants: NO 2 Time Averaged Map of NO 2 Total Column (30 % Cloud Screened) daily 0.25 deg. [OMI OMNO2d v003] 1/cm2 over 2015-10-01 2015 2015-10-31, Region 57E, 0N, 103E, 45N Time Averaged Map of NO 2 Total Column (30 % Cloud Screened) daily 0.25 deg. [OMI OMNO2d v003] 1/cm2 over 2015-11-01, Region 57E, 0N, 103E, 45N
Commonly regulated pollutants: SO 2 Time Averaged map of SO2 Column Amount (Planetary Boundary Layer) OMSO2e v003 daily 0.25 deg. [OMI OMSO2e v003] DU over 2015-10-01 2015-10-31, region 57E, 0N, 103E, 45N Time Averaged map of SO2 Column Amount (Planetary Boundary Layer) OMSO2e v003 daily 0.25 deg. [OMI OMSO2e v003] DU over 2015-11-01 2015-11-02, region 57E, 0N, 103E, 45N
MODIS active Fire Data Past 24 Hours fire data for (2015-11-17 to 2015-11-18) accessed on 18 th Nov. Source: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/firemap/