Mesoscale modeling and satellite observation of transport and mixing of smoke and dust particles over northern sub‐Saharan African region

Yang, Zhifeng; Wang, Jun; Ichoku, Charles; Hyer, E. J.; Zeng, Jing

doi:10.1002/2013jd020644

Cited by 39 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…4 and in Ichoku and Kaufman (2005), because most fires observable from satellite at~1 km spatial resolution in different parts of the world typically inject plumes to heights of about 1.5±1.0 km above ground level (a.g.l. ), with the exception of very large fires (e.g., Lavoué et al, 2000;Freitas et al, 2006;Kahn et al, 2007;Val Martin et al, 2012;Yang et al, 2013).…”

Section: Wind Vectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global top-down smoke-aerosol emissions estimation using satellite fire radiative power measurements

2014

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Abstract. Fire emissions estimates have long been based on bottom-up approaches that are not only complex, but also fraught with compounding uncertainties. We present the development of a global gridded (1 • × 1 • ) emission coefficients (C e ) product for smoke total particulate matter (TPM) based on a top-down approach using coincident measurements of fire radiative power (FRP) and aerosol optical thickness (AOT) from the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors aboard the Terra and Aqua satellites. This new Fire Energetics and Emissions Research version 1.0 (FEER.v1) C e product has now been released to the community and can be obtained from http://feer.gsfc. nasa.gov/, along with the corresponding 1-to-1 mapping of their quality assurance (QA) flags that will enable the C e values to be filtered by quality for use in various applications. The regional averages of C e values for different ecosystem types were found to be in the ranges of 16-21 g MJ −1 for savanna and grasslands, 15-32 g MJ −1 for tropical forest, 9-12 g MJ −1 for North American boreal forest, and 18-26 g MJ −1 for Russian boreal forest, croplands and natural vegetation. The FEER.v1 C e product was multiplied by time-integrated FRP data to calculate regional smoke TPM emissions, which were compared with equivalent emissions products from three existing inventories. FEER.v1 showed higher and more reasonable smoke TPM estimates than two other emissions inventories that are based on bottom-up approaches and already reported in the literature to be too low, but portrayed an overall reasonable agreement with another top-down approach. This suggests that top-down approaches may hold better promise and need to be further developed to accelerate the reduction of uncertainty associated with fire emissions estimation in air-quality and climate research and applications. Results of the analysis of FEER.v1 data for [2004][2005][2006][2007][2008][2009][2010][2011] show that 65-85 Tg yr −1 of TPM is emitted globally from open biomass burning, with a generally decreasing trend over this short time period. The FEER.v1 C e product is the first global gridded product in the family of "emission factors", that is based essentially on satellite measurements, and requires only direct satellite FRP measurements of an actively burning fire anywhere to evaluate its emission rate in near-real time, which is essential for operational activities, such as the monitoring and forecasting of smoke emission impacts on air quality.

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Section: Wind Vectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global top-down smoke-aerosol emissions estimation using satellite fire radiative power measurements

2014

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“…Such long‐range transported smoke layers are frequently observed over marine boundary layer clouds, the most frequently occurring low‐level stratus clouds over the region [ Peters et al , 2009; de Graaf et al ., ; Torres et al ., ; Yu et al ., , ]. For this region, we will also examine the relative positions of smoke and stratocumulus clouds closely. West African Monsoon (WAM) (−20°W–20°E, 10°S–20°N) (see Figure c)This region represents one of the most complicated mixture cases of dust and smoke aerosols that are predominant at different air layers during boreal winter season [ Huang et al ., , ; Yang et al ., ]. Such aerosol mixture is evidenced to be strongly tied to the significance of aerosol effects on precipitation [ Huang et al ., , ].…”

Section: Regions Of Interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[] and Yang et al . [] was adopted to obtain vertically resolved AOD profile. Because cloud optical depth (COD) is usually much higher than AOD, we used 300 m and 150 m vertical resolutions for the vertical altitude probability distribution function (PDF) analysis of AOD and COD, respectively.…”

Section: Data and Data Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

CALIPSO inferred most probable heights of global dust and smoke layers

et al. 2015

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The vertical location of aerosol layers is critical for determining predominance of aerosol radiative and microphysical effects in aerosol-cloud-precipitation-climate interaction. The spaceborne lidar system, the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO), provides an unprecedented opportunity to observe vertical distributions of global aerosol layers. In this study we examine the most probable height (MPH) of dust and smoke layers, which are calculated either from aerosol occurrence frequency (OF) in vertical feature mask or aerosol extinction profile. The study focuses on six high-aerosol-loading regions where aerosols are of great interest in a range of scientific topics: Saharan Air Layer (SAL) over Tropical Atlantic, West African Monsoon region (WAM), Southeast Atlantic Ocean (SAO), Southeast Asia (SEA) and South China Sea, Amazon (AMZ), and Northwestern Pacific (NWP). The analysis revealed interesting spatial and seasonal variability of different vertical mixture features over these regions: seasonal migration of dust layers over SAL, separation and mixture of dust and smoke layers over WAM and NWP, and smoke layer above clouds over SAO, SEA, and AMZ. Results also indicated that the OF-based MPH tends to be much higher than the aerosol optical depth (AOD)-based MPH, owing to the predominating near-surface sources. Within the same vertical resolution grid of CALIPSO, aerosols are found with higher OF at higher levels but AOD tends to increase toward lower levels, because most aerosol sources are near the surface and the aerosol layers transported to high altitudes are generally much more diluted over larger spatial domain than those near the surface.

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“…The dust particles travel long distances (Ansmann et al, 2003;De Tomasi et al, 2003), carried by the power and the direction of the wind. Several campaigns (AMMA (African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses), SAMUM (SAharan Mineral dUst experiment), SAMUM-2, ACE-(Aerosol Characterization Experiment), SHADE (Saharan Dust Experiment), SHADOW (Study of SaHAran Dust Over West Africa),…) have been organized to study the optical and microphysical properties of these particles yielding many results (Vitale et al, 2000;Tanré et al, 2003;Muller et al, 2009;Cavalieri et al, 2010;Flamant et al, 2011;Formenti et al, 2011;Ogunjobi et al, 2012;Yang et al, 2013;Kocha et al, 2013;Vesselovsky et al, 2016;Mortier et al, 2016). These properties can be modified when the particles travel a long distance by interacting with other types of aerosols and, more generally, with their environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurements of Aerosol Optical and Microphysical Properties in Tizi Ouzou

Belaidi

Goloub

Ameur

et al. 2017

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

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To characterize the optical behavior of atmospheric particles located above the region of Tizi Ouzou, a micro-LIDAR and a sun/sky-photometer have been used. The analysis of three years of observation has revealed a large variability in the optical properties of the particles present in the atmosphere of this region. The aerosol extinction optical depth (τ) at 500 nm varies from 0.03 to about 2. The Angstrom Exponent (α), in the range 440-870 nm, varies from 0 to 1.8 and is indicating a large variability in size. The combination of micro LIDAR and sun/sky photometer measurements allowed us to determine the vertical profiles of the aerosol extinction coefficient (σ ext ). The vertical profile helps to separate local from transported particles origins. The observation site is located in the city and surrounded by high mountains (2300 m asl). The aerosol optical depth at 500 nm and the Angstrom exponent respectively having the values τ > 0.5 and α < 0.25 indicate the high presence of desert dust particles from Saharan origin. This type of particles is frequently observed for α ranging between 0.25 and 0.35. The analysis of back-trajectories helped to identify the probable origin of air masses affecting the region. Our results show that a routinely operating LIDAR / photometer observing system coupled with backtrajectories analysis is a relevant tool for aerosols monitoring. They show, for the first time, the high temporal variability of aerosols present in the atmosphere of the Tizi Ouzou region.

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Mesoscale modeling and satellite observation of transport and mixing of smoke and dust particles over northern sub‐Saharan African region

Cited by 39 publications

References 72 publications

Global top-down smoke-aerosol emissions estimation using satellite fire radiative power measurements

Global top-down smoke-aerosol emissions estimation using satellite fire radiative power measurements

CALIPSO inferred most probable heights of global dust and smoke layers

Measurements of Aerosol Optical and Microphysical Properties in Tizi Ouzou

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