Events Calendar

Progress towards monitoring of ambient particulate matter using satellite and aircraft remote sensing

Speaker: David J. Diner , JPL - California Institute of Technology

Talk Title: Progress towards monitoring of ambient particulate matter using satellite and aircraft remote sensing

Abstract: Exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) has been consistently linked to adverse health effects including cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, heart attacks, low birth weight, and premature death. According to the 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study, ambient (outdoor) PM causes over 3 million premature deaths in a single year. Although surface stations are currently used to monitor PM concentrations, their sparse distribution can lead to errors in establishing accurate exposure levels, and they are unable to provide the level of spatial detail needed to link different aerosol species to given health effects. By using passive remote sensing (that is, inference of particle properties by observing backscattered sunlight from a high-altitude platform), significant progress has been made in recent years to differentiate particle types using a combination of Multispectral, multiangular, and polarimetric observations. Establishment of regression relationships between column aerosol loading and the concentration of near-surface particulates measured by surface monitors makes it possible to use the coverage provided by satellite and airborne instruments to map PM with contiguous spatial coverage.
At JPL, we have been developing observational technologies to map aerosol abundance and type by remote sensing. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer instrument has been flying on NASA's Terra spacecraft since 1999, and has demonstrated the value of supplementing multispectral measurements with observations at different view angles to separate scattering by aerosols from reflection by the underlying surface, enhance the visibility of thin aerosols, distinguish spherical and nonspherical particles, and track the injection heights of discrete aerosol plumes. More recently, we have been flying the Airborne Multiangle SpectroPolarimetric Imager (AirMSPI) instrument on NASA's high-altitude ER-2 aircraft. Interaction of sunlight with the atmosphere polarizes the light, providing an additional tool for diagnosing the size distribution and optical properties of airborne particles. In this talk I will discuss how an integrated approach in which remote sensing data, additional particle type constraints provided by chemical transport models, and in situ particle monitors has the potential to provide a cost-effective global PM monitoring system to benefit the health of future generations.


Biography: David J. Diner is a Senior Research Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology and Principal Investigator of the satellite Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) and Airborne Multiangle SpectroPolarimetric Imager (AirMSPI) instruments. He is also Supervisor of the Aerosol and Cloud Science Group at JPL. Dr. Diner received the B.S. degree in Physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and the M.S and Ph.D. degrees in Planetary Science from Caltech. He has been involved in numerous NASA planetary and Earth remote-sensing investigations, and is the recipient of both the NASA Outstanding Leadership and Exceptional Achievement medals.

Host: Bhaskar Krishnamachari

Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Shane Goodoff