Evaluation of Transboundary Dust and

Smoke

Bob VetMike Shaw

MODIS Image for June 26, 2002: Saskatchewan forest fires

Work Done To Date(No funding)

1. Created an inventory of potential transboundary dust and smoke episodes

2. Developed a geo-referencing system for satellite images

• for the inclusion of geographical information on satellite images to identify source and affected regions

3. Arranged for microbial and chemical analysis of dust transported from the Texas/Mexico area

Photo by Chen Weinan. Taken from an office building in downtown Midland, TX June 3, 2003.

Dust/Smoke Episode Inventory• Inventory of 44 potential dust events identified from

MODIS, GOES East and other NOAA satellite images (2001-2004)

• Inventory of over 250 modelled dust events from NRL/Monterey

Mexico/Texas Dust - May 15, 2003

Quebec Forest Fires -July 6, 2002

Geo-referencing of satellite images for identification of sources and affected

areas

Some Minor Interesting Activities

• Carlton University (David Miller) is doing exploratory microbial analysis of two CAPMoN dust-in-precipitation samples:

December 16-17, 2003 February 20-21, 2004

• Arrangements have been made with the University of Texas at El Paso (Tom Gill) for future chemical analysis of CAPMoN dust-in-precipitation samples (similar to the McNAFTA Red Dust Event)

Possible Future Activities(if funding becomes available)

• Update our inventory of potential transboundary events including those predicted by the NARCM model

• Investigate inventoried dust/smoke/haze events for evidence of transboundary transport (assess the use of satellite/trajectory imagery)

• Collaborate with Sunling Gong to evaluate NARCM predicted dust events using satellite images, trajectories and measurement data