MODIS Rapid Response
FASTNET Event Report: 040219TexMexDust
Texas-Mexico Dust EventFebruary 19, 2004
Contributed by the FASNET Community
Correspondence to R Poirot, R Husar
Satellites detect dust most storms in near real time
The MODIS sensor on AQUA and Terra provides 250m resolution images of the dust storm
Visual inspection reveals the dust sources at the beginning of dust streaks.
The NOAA AVHRR sensor highlights the dust by its IR sensors
In the TOMS satellite image, the dust signal is conspicuously absent – too close to the ground
Media and Other Accounts
KBIM television reporter Abby Roedel films a vehicle accident during a dust storm Thursday (2/19/04) in New Mexico.
SOUTHLAND, Texas (AP) -- Thick, reddish-brown dust swirled over parts of West Texas, contributing to a series of traffic accidents that killed two people and injured dozens of others. As many as 30 vehicles crashed Thursday (2/19) on U.S. Highway 84 between Southland and Post, about 20 miles southeast of Lubbock, said Cpl. John Gonzalez with the Department of Public Safety.
PM2.5 from EPA AIRNOW & RH-adjusted bscat: 2/18-20/04
Note Separate areas of high PM concentration and
haze in both Northeast and
Southwest Border Regions on
2/19/04.
Surface met data from the 1200 station network documents the strong winds that cause the windblown dust and resulting low-visibility regions
High Wind Speed – Dust Spatially Correspond
The spatial/temporal correspondence suggests that most visibility loss is due to locally suspended dust, rather than transported dust
Alternatively, suspended dust and ‘high winds’ travel forward at the same speedWind speed animation; Bext animation. (material for model validation?)
The passage of the dust cloud from west to east is recorded by the high-resolution ASOS_STI Dry Bext data
PM10 > 10 x PM25During the passage of the dust cloud over El Paso, the PM10 concentration was more than 10 times higher than the PM2.5
AIRNOW PM10 and Pm25 data
PM10 and PM25, El Paso, Feb. 19 2004 - AIRNOW
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Schematic
Link to dust modelers for faster collective learning?
The Mother of dust models, NAAPS, simulates the event well
Green, dust surface concentration and optical thickness
Monte Carlo simulation of dust transport using surface winds (just a toy, 3D winds are essential!)
See animation Note, how sensitive the transport direction is to the source location (according to this toy)
Bob Vet reports high concentrations of dust in deposition samples from
Chicago & southern Ontario with suspected origin from
Tex/Mex dust storm.
Michel Bisson reports “beige/orange snow” on Mt. Tremblent, Quebec and VT
has multiple reports of “brown” or “reddish-brown”
snow on 2/21/04.
Did the dust travel to the Northeast and Quebec?
WRF Research Model – No Dust Source
Do any of the HiRes models have dust sources a la NAAPS?