Matthew Erbst, Dominican University of California

Steven Schill, UC San Diego

Dr. Barry Lefer, NASA HQ
Dr. Timothy Bertram, UW Madison

Background: Aerosols
Whats an Aerosol?
Origin
Environmental Impact
Biological Impact
Sources of Aerosols
Andreae, M. (2009). A New Look at Aging Aerosols. Science, 326(5959), 1493-1494.
doi:10.1126/science.1183158

Aerosol Environmental Interaction

Aerosol Health Interaction

Chem.atmos.colostate.edu,. (2015).Shunsuke NAKAO. Retrieved 3 August

2015, from http://chem.atmos.colostate.edu/~shun/r

https://www.tecmask.com/?lang=en&currency=USD

Motivation
PM2.5?

Forecasts
Verification
In situ airborne

measurements.
24.7 ug/m3
36.2 ug/m3
7.2 ug/m3

*Data shown with flight path is for demonstration

purposes and does not represent real data.

Background: UHSAS
Ultra High Sensitivity

Aerosol Spectrometer

Diode

Measures the scattering of

light from aerosols with two

diodes.
Sorts into diameter length
based bins ranging from
60-1000nm.
Laser

Air intake

Reference diode

CARB (California Air Resource

Board) Ground Station Data
Flight Data only allows
small glimpses at a certain
areas air profile.

Use of ground data allows

further point of
verification.

LA Flight AM 6/23/15

Flight path, aerosol data, and ground station locations for our morning LA flight

LA Flight PM 6/23/15

Flight path, aerosol data, and ground station locations for our afternoon LA flight

Santa Barbara Flight 6/24/15

Flight path, aerosol data, and ground station locations for our morning SB flight

CARB & UHSAS Mapped Together

24 hour, hourly CARB Ground Station mapped with UHSAS.

Highlighted region time of flight.

The Models Being Compared:

NOAAs (National Oceanic
and Atmospheric
Administration) NAM 12 CMAQ

CMAQ archived
predictive forecast for
6/23/15.
Data displayed in
ug/m3

Higher Resolution Map Generated

With Ground Data
Courtesy of the EPAs AIRNOW
program.
Faults with this map
It doesnt distinguish PM10 from
PM2.5
Yellow = moderate which for
PM2.5 would 12.1-35.4 ug/m3
according to their index.

Dispersion over LA
HYSPLIT dispersion model using air stations and city as locus.
Use of past meteorological data as compared to model data.

Santa Barbara 6/24/15

NOAA and EPA AIRNOW archived forecasts for 6/24/15.

CARB vs UHSAS

24 hour, hourly CARB Ground Station mapped with UHSAS.

Highlighted region time of flight.

Dispersion over SB
HYSPLIT dispersion model using air stations and city as locus.

Santa Barbara Flight Revisited

High aerosol count
at +25000 ft.

A parcel of air at over 25,000 ft. possessed counts within the same degree of intensity
as ground levels.

Comparison of In Flight Data and

Forecast Models

A comparison of EPA AIRNOW and the aerosol spike location.

Anomalous Air Parcel

Unaccounted for by model and ground measurments.
Highest in the most dangerous types of Aerosols (extremely small).
Unknown Origin
While still low compared to normal elevated ground levels, taking higher
atmosphere dispersion into affect still significantly concentrated.

Conclusion
For large scale, nonspecific, and normal patterns,

models are sufficient to give general ideas.

Cannot forecast hotspots or anomalies.
Aspects of model combined with in situ data allow
greater tracing of anomalous events, even if original
model lacked capability.
Ground monitoring cannot forecast certain anomalies
due to high atmospheric transport

Future Directions
Quantitifying forecast verification by utilizing the data

used to generate forecast maps.

Investigation into ways to account for non-standard
events with use of ground and air data.

Acknowledgments
Sean Freeman and Nick Heath
Dr. Barry Lefer and Dr. Timothy Bertram

Steven Schill
Emily Schaller & Rick Shetter