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Using MODIS to Study Intercontinental Transport of Saharan Dust

Using MODIS to Study Intercontinental Transport of Saharan Dust. Sun Wong 1 , Andrew E Dessler 1 , Peter R. Colarco 2 1 Department of Atmospheric Science, Texas A&M University 2 Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. August 11, 2002.

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Using MODIS to Study Intercontinental Transport of Saharan Dust

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  1. Using MODIS to Study Intercontinental Transport of Saharan Dust Sun Wong1, Andrew E Dessler1, Peter R. Colarco2 1Department of Atmospheric Science, Texas A&M University 2Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland

  2. August 11, 2002 • Why is understanding dust transport pathways important? • Forecasting tropical cyclones • Chemistry, air pollution, and climate problems • Variation of the west African monsoon (WAM)

  3. US Atlantic Dust Africa Dust South America

  4. First EOF: Onset of Dust Transport Event C1(t) Ψ1(x) 2002

  5. NCEP T850 JUL 23-26 CARMA AOT JUL 23-26

  6. MOD08 L3 JUL 23-26 CARMA AOT JUL 23-26

  7. US Atlantic Dust Africa South America

  8. MOD08 L3, LAG 0, JUL 23-26 CARMA, LAG 0, JUL 23-26 LAG 3, JUL 26-29 LAG 3, JUL 26-29 LAG 5, JUL 28-31 LAG 5, JUL 28-31

  9. US Atlantic Africa Dust South America

  10. MOD08 L3, LAG 0, SEP 5-8 CARMA, LAG 0, SEP 5-8 LAG 3, SEP 8-11 LAG 3, SEP 8-11 LAG 5, SEP 10-13 LAG 5, SEP 10-13

  11. EOF-2: An Index for Dust Transport

  12. Conclusions • The onset and the direction of Saharan dust transport can be diagnosed by two indices obtained from EOF on the NCEP 850 hPa T field • Transport of Saharan dust simulated by CARMA and retrieved by MODIS show general consistency • EOF-2 (the transport direction) is significantly correlated (–0.5) with the daily west African monsoon index • AIRS T data allows us to follow the warm anomaly and agrees well with NCEP data

  13. Future Research • (EOF-1 and EOF-2): the SAL onset and evolution, the intercontinental dust transport (NCEP, AIRS, CARMA, MODIS) • EOF-2: The SAL evolution ~ variaton of WAM (NCEP, AIRS, CARMA, MODIS) • Year-to-year variation?? (multi year NCEP, AIRS, MODIS) • Relation to the stability in eastern Atlantic (long-term trend, influence on TC development)

  14. CARMA (Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmospheres, [Colarco et al., 2003]) • MATCH (NCAR Model for Atmospheric Transport and Chemistry) and NCEP/NCAR provide meteorology and physics • Dust emissions, dry deposition, sub- and in-cloud scavenging • Particle size distribution: 0.1-10 µm • 28 σ-layers from the surface to 35 km, 18 below 10 km • Horizontal resolution: 1.875 x 1.875 • Time step: 1800 sec. • AOT: Mie Scattering, refractive index 1.50 – 0.01i

  15. EOF Eigenvalue Error Estimates • EOF1: 18.3%, λ = 6.67 ± 0.85 • EOF2: 10.5%, λ = 3.82 ± 0.49 • EOF3: 8.6%, λ = 3.12 ± 0.40

  16. PC-2: How the SAL Evolves C2(t) Ψ2(x)

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