Atmospheric Composition

Dust sources are mostly located in remote areas and satellite observations are very suitable for their identification. Different methods inferring active dust sources have been developed in the recent past, which roughly can be separated into direct (e.g., back-tracking of dust plumes to their place of origin) and indirect methods (e.g., frequency of high atmospheric dust loading). Thereby, the accuracy of the identification methods varies with the temporal and spatial resolutions and the ambiguities of the satellite dust retrieval used. In concert with satellite-based dust source characterization, model simulations allow for a holistic assessment on dust sources and their controlling mechanism - ultimately providing insight into the multifaceted nature of the atmospheric dust life-cycle.

Go to webcast

Lecture slides

Air pollution is one of the most important environmental problems in developing Asian countries like China. In this region, studies showed that the East Asian monsoon plays a significant role in characterizing the temporal variation and spatial patterns of air pollution, since monsoon is a major atmospheric system affecting air mass transport, convection, and precipitation. Knowledge gaps still exist in the understanding of Asian monsoon impact on the air quality in China under the background of global climate change. For the first time satellite observations of tropospheric ozone and its precursors will be integrated with the ground-based, aircraft measurements of air pollutants and model simulations to study the impact of the East Asian monsoon on air quality in China.

Go to webcast

Lecture slides

In this presentation, we will show the result of detection of dust using COMS data. Several Asian dust cases will be presented and as well as some operation results.

Go to webcast

Lecture slides

The eruption of Holuhraun in August 2014, in central Iceland, is the country’s largest lava and gas eruption since the Lakagígar eruption in 1783. Although very little volcanic ash was produced, large quantities of SO2 were released into the atmosphere. Two models have been used to simulate the dispersion and transport of SO2 for this event, the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART and the on-line coupled model WRF-Chem. Whereas in the FLEXPART calculations no anthropogenic emissions or aqueous-phase chemical reactions are considered, in the WRF-Chem calculations, both are fully included. The results of the simulations are evaluated against satellite (GOME2B and OMI) data, as well as ground based SO2 concentration data. The analysis is conducted on a data management platform, which is currently developed in the frame of the ESA-funded project TAMP “Technology and Atmospheric Mission Platform”: it provides comprehensive functionalities to visualize and numerically compare data from different sources (model, satellite and ground-measurements).

Go to webcast

Lecture slides