Enrichment of NASA Satellite and GEOS Data Products for Regional Air Quality and Public Health Management under Smoke Conditions

Accurate near-real-time (NRT) predictions of PM_2.5 and ozone air quality (AQ) are of importance for local communities to effectively mitigate public exposure to high pollution events, especially during smoke conditions. Existing forecast models often suffer from significant uncertainties arising from discrepancies in fire emissions and modeled plume injection heights. Local and state air quality and public health (AQPH) agencies heavily rely on satellite data products to enhance forecast models, but satellite derived products, such as aerosol optical depth, lack information on the vertical distribution of aerosols to reflect the distribution of surface layer pollution. In a first step to address these challenges, FireAQ has successfully developed a fully operational and interactive website to support current decision-making systems. The platform visualizes forecasts of PM_2.5 and ozone predictions and support the analysis of exceptional events.

In the initial phase of the project, the website visualizes daily-averaged surface PM_2.5 predictions from three forecast models: the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS-FP) and GEOS Composition Forecast (GEOS-CF), and the Naval Research Lab (NRL) Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS), along with their ensemble mean and hourly time-series. Other visualizations include Aerosol Optical Centroid Height (AOCH) data and Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), derived in-house using TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) observations, and several fire products from the Visible Infrared Imager-Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensors retrieved using the in house Fire Light Detection Algorithm v2 algorithm. Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) AOCH and AOD observations are planned for the future.

In this presentation, we will demonstrate the potential applications of the model and satellite data products available on our website. The website development is the result of the collaboration and partnership with four different state agencies and one air quality consortium. Furthermore, updates and refinements to the platform will be made based on continuous feedback and interactions with the involved stakeholders; South Coast Air Quality Management District, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Oklahoma Environmental Quality, Maine Department of Environmental Protection, and Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium. Ultimately, our aim is to provide access to AQ relevant products and improved predictions to regional AQPH management.