Particulate matter at the Gulf of Mexico

[Jennifer McGinnis]

I want to find a high-resolution satellite imagery or products that show low-level dust or smoke, especially over the oceans, in real time or with a temporal lag of less than two or three days. I issue air quality forecasts for several days in advance, and I often cannot determine the magnitude or altitude of dust and smoke plumes over the Gulf of Mexico and other marine areas with adequate precision. The real-time particulate matter monitors (and airport visibility monitors in the event of sufficiently thick particulate) detect low-level dust and smoke that moves over land in the United States of America (or Canada). Nevertheless, even after repeated searches, I cannot find good high-resolution satellite imagery that reliably shows these areas of low-level particulate matter over water. Oftentimes, thick smoke on satellite exists only in the upper part of the troposphere above a relatively clean surface layer. At other times, however, a dirty surface layer can underlie a clean upper troposphere.

I also noticed this product from 2017 and wish that I could find it in something near real time for 2022:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12983

Are you aware of any freely available National Aeronautics and Space Administration products or other satellite-based products that I perhaps overlooked? Can you please guide me to any available resources?

 

[Administrator]

Navy’s Model: offers an aerosol forecast that includes both dust and smoke in various regions, including the Gulf of Mexico and the ocean.

NOAA’s operational AQ model: offers near real time surface smoke and dust over the continental United States, and part of the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean.

NASA GEOS-FP and GEOS-CF: offer near real time forecast for dust, particulate matter, and surface PM2.5 for the continental United States and part of the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean.

NOAA EMC: offers a global aerosol forecast for surface PM.

AerosolWatch: offers near real time GOES-16 and GOES-17 true color imagery, AOD, smoke/dust masks, satellite derived estimates of PM2.5, and hourly PM2.5 from EPA surface monitors.

Aerosol Optical Height: offers near real time height and AOD over the continental United States and surrounding water that is retrieved from the TROPOMI satellite.

Probability of PM2.5 Exceedance, Ensemble AOD, and Ensemble surface PM2.5: offers hourly forecasts to capture local dust/fire sources and long-range transported plumes.

If you have the opportunity to circle back and let us know which of these proved most useful - or even if none quite fit your need - that will inform our ability to support other air quality managers with similar needs in the future.