HR: 1330h
AN: A22B-1070    [PDF]
TI: Operational Smoke and Volcanic Ash Plume Monitoring in NESDIS' Satellite Services Division
AU: McNamara, D P
EM: donna.mcnamara@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/NESDIS Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution, 5200 Auth Rd. rm 510, Camp Springs, MD 20746 United States
AU: * Stephens, G
EM: george.stephens@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/NESDIS Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution, 5200 Auth Rd. rm 510, Camp Springs, MD 20746 United States
AU: Ruminski, M
EM: mark.ruminski@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/NESDIS Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution, 5200 Auth Rd. rm 510, Camp Springs, MD 20746 United States
AU: Kasheta, T
EM: timothy.kasheta@noaa.gov
AF: RS Information Systems, 5200 Auth Rd. rm 501, Camp Springs, MD 20746 United States
AU: Taylor, J
EM: jason.taylor@noaa.gov
AF: RS Information Systems, 5200 Auth Rd. rm 501, Camp Springs, MD 20746 United States
AB: The Satellite Services Division (SSD) of NOAA's National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS) operationally monitors fire and smoke activity in the continental U.S. and Alaska to support fire management and air quality monitoring activities, and monitors airborne volcanic ash to support the Washington Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (W-VAAC), which issues advisories to the Federal Aviation Administration and the air transport community. Information on fires and smoke and airborne ash is obtained from GOES, AVHRR, and MODIS data, employing both automated retrieval algorithms and analyst interpretation. Using the Hazard Mapping System developed in SSD, analysts in the SSD's Satellite Analysis Branch complete a daily fire and smoke analysis, available at http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm . Locations of fires noted to be producing large smoke plumes are written to a file which is used as input to a smoke trajectory forecasting program, the HYbrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model, developed by the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory, which is running a demonstration forecast program, available at http://www.arl.noaa.gov/smoke/ . In addition, the GOES Aerosol and Smoke Product (GASP), developed by NESDIS' Office of Research and Applications, is being operationally implemented to monitor large aerosol events, including smoke and anthropogenic pollutants. The W-VAAC, located within SAB and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), issues advisories on the presence of airborne volcanic ash, based on satellite observations. Using active volcanic eruption locations as input, NCEP runs a trajectory model, the Volcanic Ash Forecast Trajectory and Dispersion (VAFTAD), to forecast ash position and concentration. This will soon be replaced by the HYSPLIT model. Multispectral color imagery of smoke and ash events, as well as many other environmentally signficant events, is produced and posted daily by SSD's Operational Significant Events Imagery (OSEI) program at http://www.osei.noaa.gov/ .
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801)
DE: 0345 Pollution--urban and regional (0305)
DE: 0370 Volcanic effects (8409)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting