Gator Team represented at the Final AQAST Meeting at EPA

NASA's Air Quality Applied Sciences Team (AQAST) recently held their tenth and final semiannual meeting at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Research Triangle Park (RTP) campus.  

As an AQAST PI, Dr. Anne Thompson presented ozone modeling results from past (Dr. Greg Garner) and current (Nikolay Balashov) Gator Team members (photo below).  

Other team members, Dr. Debra Kollonige (MDGatorTeam) and Hannah Halliday (PSUGatorTeam), presented posters on methane signatures over oil and gas operation from satellites (Tiger Team project) and NASA DISCOVER-AQ Colorado benzene analysis respectively.  Both hot topics in regional air quality. The meeting was a nice ending to a successful 5 years of assisting local, regional and national air quality partners and has established a precedent for the upcoming NASA H-AQAST (Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team).    

MD Gator Team Blog Revival...Starting with Anne Thompson's AGU Honors in December 2015

It's been quite some time since our last MD Gator Team post. Starting with this post, we hope to improve upon that in the coming months with team member announcements, new results from recent journal publications and meeting presentations, and updates from upcoming field campaigns.

In December at the 2015 Fall AGU Meeting in San Francisco, our fearless leader, Dr. Anne Thompson, was honored with The Roger Revelle Medal. Given annually to one honoree in recognition for “outstanding contributions in atmospheric sciences, atmosphere-ocean coupling, atmosphere-land coupling, biogeochemical cycles, climate or related aspects of the Earth system", the Revelle Medal is named in honor of Roger Revelle, who made substantial contributions to the awareness of global change. Edward N. Lorenz was the first recipient of the Revelle Medal in 1992 with other notable recipients including: James R. Holton and James Hansen.

Anne's work in the late 1980s and early 1990s was among the first to link chemical changes, climate forcings and the earth’s oxidizing capacity. Carrying along this research theme of studying natural and anthropogenic influences on atmospheric trace gases, she is best known for establishing Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozonesondes (SHADOZ) in 1998 (a partnership with tropical nations that has provided the scientific community with thousands of ozone profiles.) Researchers all over the world use SHADOZ data to validate satellites.

We are happy to congratulate her on all of her honors including: most recently, a corresponding member in science of the Academy of Athens in November 2015.  With all of her hard work, it's well deserved!

Pyrocumulus Clouds over California and Oregon Last week

With much of the Pacific Northwest experiencing drought conditions, fires burning in Northern California and Southern Oregon led to poor air quality conditions regionally and downwind of the fires in early August.  Pyrocumulus clouds, also known as "fire clouds",  appear as opaque white patches hovering over darker smoke in satellite imagery and form from the intense heat of the fires (similar to cumulus clouds forming over a sun-warmed ground). The MODIS satellite views below show pyrocumulus clouds near the California/Oregon border associated with the Beaver Complex Fire and Bald Fire. 

AIRS observed in near real time the rapid vertical motion associated with these pyrocumulus clouds and the injection of carbon monoxide high into the atmosphere (at least 5-6km above the surface).  Once the smoke reached this height, CO is easily transported downwind as seen in the image below where the plume extends eastward into Idaho.The Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) also captured smoke emanating from these fires.  Observations of aerosols detected by OMPS can be viewed here and show the smoke plume transported to Idaho and Montana by August 3rd. 

As of August 8th, the entire region remains under a Fire Weather Watch. With droughts continuing to be a serious problem, the threat of forest fires remains high as we continue through August. 

This blog post was the combined effort of Meredith Nichols and Debra Kollonige.

How are emission sources distributed in Weld County Colorado? - HOT TOPIC during the DISCOVER-AQ/FRAPPE campaigns

Natural gas and oil wells have appeared more rapidly across Colorado in the past few years, particularly in Weld County, which is one area where the DISCOVER-AQ/FRAPPE aircrafts have been flying this past month. The C-130 aircraft, run by NCAR/NSF, detected possible well signatures in the area between Platteville and Greeley (see figure below) on July 26th, where there is a heavy population of oil and gas wells (not shown).     

The first area circled in red between Greeley and Kersey (C-130 measurements below) appears to have gas emissions from both agricultural and oil & gas sources. The C-130 measured elevated concentrations of ethane and benzene in this region, typically oil & gas signatures, but ammonium (bi-product of ammonia) also has elevated concentrations. Based on EIA's database of oil and gas wells and google imagery of farms and well pads, we discovered this area does have both sources. 

Further to the south near Gilcrest, the C-130 measured (preliminary data above) hot spot of benzene, but unlike the first area, there was no elevated ammonium just west of the town. EIA's well database places multiple wells in this area as well as a natural gas power plant, indicating a local source. On the figures above, another area to point out is just southeast of Platteville and northeast of Fort Lupton.  Elevated concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), benzene, ethane were measured by the C-130 and are most likely being emitted by oil and gas wells situated south of Platteville and multiple natural gas power plants just northeast of Fort Lupton (based on EIA's database).  

Ground measurements from NATIVE at DISCOVER-AQ Platteville site (above) between 25th-28th of July show enhanced CO, CH4, SO2 (sulfur dioxide), and NO2 on the same day (morning of), most likely from a common local source (ie. wells and power plants to the southeast).  This appears to be a common occurrence as the next morning CH4 and NO2 are again elevated and could be emissions from the operation of a nearby gas well.  The figure below is a satellite view of the Platteville site and indicates the proximity of this site to oil and gas well pads as well as the pictures below (taken by Ryan Stauffer) of a well constructed just southwest during the Gator Team's time there.   

This blog post was the combined effort of Zachary Fasnacht and Debra Kollonige.

Heavy Rainfalls Lead to Healthier Air Quality Conditions in Colorado Front Range Last Week

Smoke, most likely originating from fires in the Northwest Territory (Canada), still lingered across the north and central US on the 27th of July.  NOAA's HMS imagery places smoke from the Canadian fires extending from the Colorado Front Range to Tennessee and across much of the central US (left).  Similarly, the AIRS instrument sees high concentrations of carbon monoxide throughout this area on the 27th (right).     

NOAA HMS fire and smoke product (left) and AIRS NRT carbon monoxide at mid-troposphere (right) courtesy of Debra Kollonige.

A low pressure system entered the region on the 28th of July, which resulted in heavy rainfall over the Colorado Front Range between July 28th-31st. The High Park Precipitation Station, near Masonville, CO, slightly southwest of Fort Collins, received roughly 2.5 inches of rain in about 24 hours (top). A precipitation station in Denver recorded almost 3 inches of rain in a similar time span (bottom).  This much needed rainfall helped temporarily relieve the state of its current drought conditions and most likely caused mixing of the smoke pollution into the atmosphere, leading to cleaner air quality conditions across the Colorado Front Range.  

Data and figures courtesy of the USGS, the Colorado Real-Time Precipitation Network, and Meredith Nichols.  

Measurements from the PSU NATIVE trailer out at Platteville, Colorado, taken during the DISCOVER-AQ campaign show the drop in carbon monoxide (left) and increase in relative humidity (right) between the 28th and 31st of July (marked in red on the figures below).  

Data and figures courtesy of the PSU Gator Team and Sonya Miller of PSU.

This blog posting was the combined effort of Debra Kollonige and Meredith Nichols.

  
Update 8/6/2014 at 1:00pm:  Here's an interesting video time lapse of the clouds and rainfall in the Front Range 28-31 July.  Thanks to Meredith Nichols for finding this.

Gator Team Student Gives Poster Presentation at NASA Goddard Today

MD Gator Team summer intern and incoming University of Maryland College Park graduate student, Zachary Fasnacht, presented his current research at the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) Intern Program poster session today.

Zach Fasnacht (right) standing at his poster today with Dr. Debra Kollonige (left), one of his mentors this summer and Gator Team South member.

His poster, entitled "Effect of Stratospheric Intrusions on Tropospheric Ozone and Air Quality", demonstrated the combined use of aircraft, ozonesonde, and satellite-retrieved profiles for locating stratospheric intrusions during the DISCOVER-AQ Maryland (2011) deployment.  At the Edgewood-Maryland site, Zach found 4 days where stratospheric intrusions enhanced tropospheric ozone; however, surface air quality conditions were not effected on those days.

This project was mentored by Dr. Anne Thompson (GSFC) and Lesley Ott (GMAO).  Zach plans to continue this work looking toward other campaign deployments like the current DISCOVER-AQ Colorado 2014 field study.

Smoke Continued to be the Story Last Weekend at DISCOVER-AQ Platteville-Colorado Site

Canadian wildfires and fires in the Pacific Northwest effected much of the northern US last week, making the air in northern half smoky, hazy, and even having unhealthy AQI (Air Quality Index) levels of PM 2.5. AIRS NRT observations in the mid-troposphere (~5.5-6.5km) places a layer of smoke above the DISCOVER-AQ Platteville site on the afternoon of 19th of July (last Saturday). Elevated concentrations of ozone and CO (carbon monoxide) correlate with intensely dry air in this layer high above northern Colorado.  NOAA HMS Smoke and Fire Product on the 17th and 18th of July (shown in previous blog post) indicate a main smoke plume originating from fires in western Canada and northwestern US.  Additional HYSPLIT trajectories (not shown but verbal communication with Ryan Stauffer) suggests the source to be smoke coming from Canadian fires. 

AIRS Day NRT ozone (top left), CO (top right), and relative humidity (bottom left) at 500mb (~5.5-6.5km) via Debra Kollonige of ESSIC/UMD.

Ozonesondes launched at Platteville show the progression of the smoke layer in the upper levels at 6-9km (on the 17th, 18th, and 19th) to its descent and dissipation at 5-7km (on the 20th and 21st) above the surface.  The highest concentrations of ozone measured by the sonde are on the 17th (afternoon-left top below) as the smoke plume begins to enter the site area at 8km (~350mb) and the 20th (morning) at 7km (~400mb) before the air mass descends (bottom right below) and mixes into lower levels on the 21st. [See PSU Gator Ozonesonde Quicklooks for additional days.]

Ozonesonde profiles launched at DISCOVER-AQ Platteville-Colorado site July 16-21 courtesy of Ryan Stauffer of PSU.

AIRS Day NRT trace gas measurements averaged over the Platteville area (retrievals within 50km)  indicate the entrance of a smoke layer over Platteville by the 17th with dry, ozone and CO rich air in the upper levels.  Peaking on the 19th, AIRS missed the higher concentration measured by the sonde on the 17th because of the course vertical resolution of the observations.  Still, its time series of ozone, CO, and relative humidity between 5 and 9km shows the buildup of ozone and CO over Platteville 17-19 July, descent of the smoke/polluted air mass starting on the 20th, and its mixing/dissipation into the lower levels on the 21st.  [See the UMBC Smog Blog at http://alg.umbc.edu/usaq/ for additional images of the descent of the smoke layer towards the surface via lidar measurements posted on July 19/20.]

AIRS Day NRT series of trace gases (ozone, relative humidity, CO and methane respectively top to bottom) observed July 16-22 at several levels including 500mb (black), 400mb (red), and 300mb (blue), which range in altitude from 5.5-9km.  Figure courtesy of Debra Kollonige.

Stay tuned for more satellite and DISCOVER-AQ measurements now that the mission has completed a few flights this week.