HR: 11:45h
AN: A32B-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Evolution and Characteristics of PyroCb Smoke From the Norman Wells August 1998 and Chisholm May 2001 Forest Fires
AU: * Servranckx, R
EM: rene.servranckx@ec.gc.ca
AF: Canadian Meteorological Centre, 2121 North Service Road, Trans-Canada Highway, Dorval, QC H9P 1J3 Canada
AU: Fromm, M
EM: mike.fromm@nrl.navy.mil
AF: Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Ave., S.W., Washington, DC 20375 United States
AB: Observations of the Aerosol Index based on backscattered near-ultraviolet radiation from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) on board the Nimbus-7 (1979-92) and the Earth Probe (mid-1996 to present) satellites show that the two biggest events resulted from the injection of smoke in the lower stratosphere from forest fires and explosive pyroCb convection near Norman Wells, NWT (August 1998) and Chisholm, Alberta (May 2001). In this paper, we look at the time evolution of the smoke palls using data from the AHVRR instrument onboard the NOAA polar orbiting satellites in the visible (ch1; 0.6 micron), near-infrared (ch3; 3.9 microns) and infrared (ch4; 10.7 microns) channels. The characteristics of the smoke clouds are examined by comparing ch4 and ch3 - ch4 values over a sunset, night and day cycle as a first step to a smoke satellite detection scheme. The satellite data are also compared to the simulated atmospheric transport and dispersion of the smoke using the Canadian Emergency Response Model (CANERM).
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801, 4906)
DE: 3314 Convective processes
DE: 3355 Regional modeling
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
DE: 3362 Stratosphere/troposphere interactions
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005