 |
NAAPS Study of 20010620 Saharan Dust, U.S Sulfate and Smoke over West Atlantic |
|---|
| |
NAAPS Study of 20010620 Saharan Dust, U.S Sulfate and Smoke over West Atlantic |
|---|
Last updated 2001062100
Below we present SeaWiFS imagery (courtesy of N. Kuring, NASA/GSFC and Orbimage) and NAAPS simulations. The SeaWiFS images are true color since they have several bands in the visible spectrum, hence we are able to see the dust as brownish areas over the ocean, even in the cloudy regions. This cannot be done with conventional satellite imagery which provide only one visible band. Smoke appears more blue, as does sulfate, or anthropogenic, plumes.
The NAAPS plots show optical depth of dust (greens), sulfate (reds) and smoke (blues) for the same regions and nearly the same times as the SeaWiFS images. Optical depth is a simple measure of the amount of aerosol in a column.
NAAPS dust optical depths in the Guadaloup (16N 61.5W) are about 0.4, whereas the AERONET values are 0.6.
NAAPS shows a smoke plume and a sulfate plume leaving the U.S. Underneath the blue shading, is the sulfate plume (the red shading). The high NAAPS smoke optical depths (blue shading) come from numerous ag fires in the Southeast as detected by Wilfire-ABBA and are probably too high. This is a recent improvment to NAAPS and we have not yet verified the smoke simulations. All of the continental plume seen in the SeaWiFS image may be sulfate, though there do appear to be two separate plume boundaries east of Nova Scotia ...
| SeaWiFS for 200106201638: | NAAPS for 2001062018: |
|---|---|
|
|
Back to Top
NAAPS Data References
Acknowledgements
6. REFERENCES:
Back to NRL Monterey ACE-Asia Case Studies Page
Back
to abbreviated NRL Monterey Aerosol Homepage
Back
to NRL Monterey Aerosol Homepage