Author: Travis Swaim

Scientific Report for the period: April 1, 2011 – March 31, 2012. Includes research highlights for the reporting period as well as a summary of achievements.

Here’s a handy convenience store located in “downtown” Riverdale Park, not far from M-Square (a few minutes away by car, 15 or so minutes on foot, somewhere in between on bicycle): https://www.facebook.com/TownCenterMarket You can find basic food supplies there, beer and wine (refrigerated or not), coffee/espresso machines, fast food like hot dogs, pizza around the corner at Dumm’s, pre-made deli sandwiches (noticed some locally-produced cheeses on sale, too). There’s seating inside and a …

The Maryland Department of the Environment encourages public input on its 2011 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act Draft Plan, Maryland's strategy for addressing climate change. The meetings will be held on May 31 and June 5. Find out more about each meeting here and here….

There’s a connection to planetary astronomy that takes one back to the beginnings of life, according to ESSIC Researcher Charon Birkett.

It was this connection to astronomy that prompted her to purse a formal education in the planetary sciences, eventually receiving her Ph.D from the University of Leicester, UK.

Although her astronomy research continued at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, Scotland and at the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomie in Katlenburg, Germany, it was

ClimateWire is designed to bring readers unmatched coverage of the debate over climate policy and its effects on business, the environment and society. (With permission

Dr. Antonio Busalacchi spoke with WTOP Radio on Monday concerning the potential for future flooding in the Metropolitan area, and urged precaution regarding how land is used and developed and how roads will be constructed. “We just look at the weather that we’ve seen in recent years and recent decades, I think a lot of people understand that there’s something different going on” Dr. Busalacci told WTOP. “The decisions we make now, will impact us for decades to come.” Busalacchi, along with …

256 – Development and Analysis of Satellite-Based Aerodynamic Roughness Fields For Regional And Global Modeling Applications Using MODIS Data
Principal Investigator(s): J. Borak (ESSIC/UMD)

The primary purpose of this task is to develop aerodynamic roughness fields at regional to global scales from MODIS data for improving models of land-atmosphere exchanges. The theory and algorithms have been developed by the task sponsor, Michael Jasinski, while the PI is primarily responsible for application of the algorithms. The sponsor and PI intend to develop and analyze other large modeled data fields from remote sensing products in the near future.

255 – Advanced Retrieval of Ozone, Sulfur Dioxide, and Volcanic Ash from NASA A-Train Satellite Instruments
Principal Investigator(s): Kai Yang (UMCP)

Ozone (O3) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) are trace gases that have important effects on climate and air quality. The spatiotemporal distributions of these trace gases, which can be measured by space-borne ultraviolet (UV) instruments, provide essential information needed to monitor their changes over time and space, estimate their climate and pollution impacts, and understand the chemical and physical processes in the atmosphere. SO2 is also a unique marker of explosively injected volcanic plumes, which pose a significant threat to aircraft. Tracking volcanic plumes in near-real-time provides critical information for aviation hazard mitigation.

254 – Regional model simulations of meteorology and chemistry for the period covering the NASA DISCOVER-AQ field experiment
Principal Investigator(s): C. P. Loughner

It is difficult to interpret what satellite observations of air pollutants throughout the entire vertical column of the atmosphere means in terms of what pollutants people breathe at Earth’s surface. DISCOVER-AQ aims to close this gap by forming relationships between column content and surface concentrations. In addition, DISCOVER-AQ aspires to further improve how satellite observations are interpreted when large spatial and/or temporal variability of pollution is present. These goals will be achieved by using observations of air pollution and meteorological variables from satellite, aircraft, sondes, tethered balloons, ground, and ship based observations as well as meteorological and air quality model simulations to determine how current and future satellite observations can more effectively diagnose ground level air pollution. Observations were collected during the first of four field campaigns during July 2011 in the Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD metropolitan areas. Model simulations covering this field campaign are currently underway to help interpret the observations and achieve the above mentioned goals. In addition, the observations and model simulations will be used to evaluate the models and determine the spatial and temporal variability of air pollution deposition.