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USE OF SATELLITE DATA TO EVALUATE AIR QUALITY
MODELS
Project No. A-61
Leaders: A. M. Dunker
A.
J. Krol
Scope and Objective
The objective of this project is to address the feasibility of using satellite
data to evaluate air quality models and to determine whether satellite
measurements have the necessary accuracy and resolution for routine evaluations
of regional air quality models.
Current Status and Future Program
This project was a new start in 2006. The evaluation of regional air quality
models is typically conducted using ground-level measurements. There are only a
few instances where data aloft from aircraft, helicopters, balloons, or towers
have been used to evaluate the third dimension of simulated air quality.
Satellite data provide two important sources of information compared to surface
monitoring data: more complete spatial coverage and a vertically-integrated
measure of air quality.
However, most applications to date have focused on identifying specific events
such as forest fires or desert dust plumes and characterizing the long-range
transport of some pollutants in combination with global-scale modeling. The use
of satellite data in regional air quality has been limited so far to preliminary
applications such as the use of satellite data to augment the spatial coverage
of surface monitoring data (e.g., Wang and Christopher, 2003; Liu et al., 2005a)
and their comparison with regional air quality model simulations. It was,
therefore, of particular interest to investigate how satellite measurements can
be used to improve our characterization of the atmosphere and evaluate air
quality models in a more comprehensive manner.
The scope of work consists of four tasks. In Task 1, AER reviewed the satellite
measurements that pertain to air quality. AER reviewed the acquisition and
processing of the satellite data in Task 2. The use of the processed data for
air quality applications was addressed in Task 3. A guideline document for the
use of satellite data in air quality was prepared in Task 4.
AER was selected to conduct this study which started in June 2006 and was
completed in July 2007. AER determined the strengths and limitations of using
the satellite data to evaluate model predictions. A recommended methodology was
developed for how satellite data should be used in evaluating regional models.
A journal article/final report was approved for publication by the committee in
June 2007.
This project
determined the feasibility and likely value of using satellite data for routine
evaluations of the performance of regional air quality models. However, Project
A-61 did not include an actual performance evaluation with satellite data. A
future project may be considered to use such data in a demonstration evaluation
of one or more models.
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