Simulating the Transport of Aerosols with GEOS-5
The GEOS-5 system is used with the GOCART module of AeroChem to make
real-time estimates and forecasts of aerosols, CO and CO2 tracers in
support of NASA field campaigns.
Simulating the Transport of Aerosols
With GEOS-5
Aerosols
Like millions of others around the world, I’m an asthmatic; so no matter how colorful or amazing this video is, it makes me feel terrible.
This NASA-produced supercomputer animation scrolls through our entire planet and, using data for the types of pollution measured at certain points around the globe during a year, shows the sources and transport of different types of aerosol pollution.
Aerosols are tiny particles in the atmosphere and they’re pretty close to my least favorite thing in the world. Some types seem like they’re worse for me than others, but all of these count as aerosol pollution. Light blue colors represent sea salt churned up by winds and the ocean; note how they are common in areas like the southern ocean away from continents. Red colors are airborne dust, churned up both by human activity and by strong winds blowing over deserts. Black carbon (soot) and organic pollutants like those released when petroleum evaporates show up in green. Finally, white is sulfate pollution, commonly released from fossil fuel burning as happens in coal-fired power plants.
The CATS instrument, the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System, was launched to the International Space Station to provide continuous, active measurements of atmospheric aerosol abundances and types. This data will allow scientists to better understand how these particles move through the atmosphere, how they interact with the weather, and how different sources supply the aerosols that drive my lungs so crazy.
Not all of these are human-caused obviously, but even natural things like “aerosol dust” can be made worse if people steal water from an area or clear vegetation for roads or farming. Note how these patterns vary over the seasons, depending on where coal plants are firing up, wind patterns are moving, or fields are being burnt to clear them for agriculture.
-JBB
NASA GEOS 5 Satellite Atmospheric
Study Aerosol
Satellites, balloon-borne instruments and ground-based devices make 30 million observations of the atmosphere each day. Yet these measurements still give an incomplete picture of the complex interactions within Earth's atmosphere. Enter climate models.
Through mathematical experiments, modelers can move Earth forward or backward in time to create a dynamic portrait of the planet. NASA Goddard's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office recently ran a simulation of the atmosphere that captured how winds whip aerosols around the world.
Such simulations allow scientists to better understand how these tiny particulates travel in the atmosphere and influence weather and climate. In this visualization, covering August 2006 to April 2007, watch as dust and sea salt swirl inside cyclones, carbon bursts from fires, sulfate streams from volcanoes - and see how these aerosols paint the modeled world.
Music by Johan Troch.
Read more: http://cats.gsfc.nasa.gov/media/docs/ISS-CATS_Final_508.pdf
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