P3.9
Characterization of dust storms sources in southwestern U. S and northwestern Mexico using remote sensing imagery

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Wednesday, 1 February 2006
Characterization of dust storms sources in southwestern U. S and northwestern Mexico using remote sensing imagery
Exhibit Hall A2 (Georgia World Congress Center)
Nancy Ivette Rivera Rivera, Univ. of Texas, El Paso, TX; and M. Bleiweiss, J. L. Hand, T. E. Gill, and R. M. Fitzgerald

Poster PDF (1.5 MB)

Extreme aerosol events, such as dust storms, can produce large quantities of dust and haze dispersed over regional or global-scales. Remote Sensing data (ground-based and satellite) can be used to assess the frequency and magnitude of these dust events for potential impacts on climate, visibility and health-related air quality issues. We examine different visible and infrared spectral bands from satellite data (NOAA/GOES/GVAR/Imager, NOAA/POES/-AVHRR and NASA/TERRA/MODIS) to locate the origin of dust plumes in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, a region that currently is not well characterized with respect to dust sources. We superimpose the dust source locations on LANDSAT-7 images to identify the surface features associated with these dust sources. This methodology is applied to several dust events, including specific events associated with long-distance aerosol transport to determine whether these surface features are persistent sources of dust in this region. These findings establish a baseline for continued research in determining potential locations for future dust outbreaks in the southwestern U. S. and northwestern Mexico.