AIR QUALITY MONITORING AT NOAA/CREST USING REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS

Measurement of aerosol loading and properties is critical both for Air Quality and Air Pollution. At CCNY, a variety of Remote sensing instruments are used for measuring atmospheric composition, optical coefficients, PM2.5, aerosol optical depth, size distribution, PBL height and many other parameters. However, in the absence of these instruments, it is necessary to determine these parameters by use of models. One particular model used by the NYSDEC that depicts the aerosol dynamics in the atmosphere is the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Our paper is focused on converting CMAQ retrieval outputs into optical coefficients that can then be used for comparison with lidar, AERONET and TEOM measurements performed at City College of the City University of New York . Differences between the full approach and parameterized methods such as the MALM formula used in AIR-NOW are observed and comparisons with AERONET show the full modeling is in general superior to the MALM formula. In addition, improvements in determining PM2.5 from both ground based and satellite measurements is discussed and the importance of PBL height is emphasized.