CAPITA Center for Air Pollution Impact and Trend Analysis Pattern and Trend Analysis Analysis of spatial patterns on regional, contintental, and global scales. Temporal trends from daily to secular scales. Satellite Imagery Processing & Analysis Aerosol Optical Depth is a measure of the excess reflectance at a location on a given day. Cloudy areas are ignored using a cloud mask. The minium reflectance image serves as a valuable indicator of surface vegetation patterns. 1998 Asian Dust Event On April 15 and , dust storms in the Gobi Desert produced unusually large dust clouds, some of which was transported across the Pacific. 1998 Central American Fires SeaWiFS, TOMS, and visibility indicate high aerosol concentrations from Central America transported over the central U.S. The smoke is transported north into the upper Midwest and to the east. The extinction coefficient is highest further north than the highest TOMS aerosol index. Smoke plumes over Central America appear over low elevation terrain, while high elevation regions remain mostly smoke free. May 2003 Asian Smoke Events Throughout the Spring of 2003, Siberian forest fires emitted unusually large smoke plumes. Satellites, surface sensors and models recorded the smoke pattern and transport in near real time. 2002 Quebec Fires Real time PM data available from satellite and surface based sensors. Left image shows the MODIS reflectance and fire location pixels. On the right, the TOMS satellite and surface visibility data are superimposed on SeaWiFS reflectance image. Fire, Smoke, & Air Quality Network