Enhancing environmental public health tracking with satellite-driven particle exposure modeling and epidemiology

: Characterizing population exposures to PM2.5 has emerged as a major environmental health initiative. Satellite aerosol remote sensing may help expand the coverage of PM2.5 monitoring to rural and suburban areas not currently located near ground-monitoring networks. The proposed study will examine the use of satellite aerosol remote sensing as a potential means to extend the coverage of the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network at CDC. Specifically, using data from multiple NASA Earth sciences missions together with meteorology and land use information, this study aims at providing accurate, timely information on the temporal and spatial characteristics of PM2.5 concentrations through an advanced spatial modeling framework that can be used by CDC and its federal, state and local partners to support, and evaluate public health policy and practice related to health impacts of air pollution. This study will integrate aerosol retrievals from MODIS, GOES, MISR, and OMI, meteorology, land use information, and EPA PM2.5 measurements over the 20-county metropolitan Atlanta area between 2000 and 2006. A spatial statistical model will be developed using this database to estimate daily PM2.5 exposures, and generate daily concentration estimates for the model grid. These estimates will be compared to Tracking Network's two current methods of estimating PM2.5. The validated PM2.5 estimates will then be incorporated in a time-series epidemiologic analyses examining the association between PM2.5 and cardiorespiratory emergency department visits and comparing the results to those generated using CDC's current PM2.5 exposure estimation methods.