Poster # 746 Providing the Caribbean community with VIIRS-derived weather satellite and dust model output in preparation for African dust impacts Arunas Kuciauskas1, Peng Xian1, Edward Hyer1, Mayra Oyola2, and James Campbell1 1 Naval Research Laboratory, Marine Meteorology Division (NRL-MMD) 2 American Society for Experiential Education (ASEE)

Acknowledgements: This project is sponsored by NOAA-JPSS: a two year effort to investigate SAL phenomenology and provide the National Weather Service in San Juan, Puerto Rico with environmental resources to assess and predict SAL events in timely fashion . These products are intended to augment their suite of AWIPS-II resources. We also wish to acknowledge Dr. Joseph Prospero & Dr. Brent Holben for use of their AERONET resources.

Set of resources that monitor the dusty SAL event before, during , and after its passage through Ragged Pt (RP). Times for all plots are focused on 12Z for each day. (a) NAAPS dust model forecasts, (b) Sfc based lidar profiles featuring SAL-related dust in middle panel, (c) vertical profile of aerosol extinction with annotated arrow relating SAL dust feature, (d) Skew-T plots identifying SAL profile in middle panel(red dashed lines), and (e) AERONET profiles highlighting peak AOT value during SAL passage at ~12Z on 25 June.

www.nrlmry.navy.mil/SAL.html

The NRL-MMD S.A.L. website is the primary resource for the project which displays near real time satellite, surface-based in-situ, and model products monitoring SAL events that propagate from northern African into the Greater Caribbean. The website serves as a resource to the NWS, San Juan, Puerto Rico in assessing and predicting SAL events into the Greater Caribbean. The table of products are listed on the right.

Soundings (12Z) AERONET (12Z)

AOT = 0.18

AOT = 0.74

AOT = 0.21

Time series of a strong dust-laden SAL case during 23 – 28 June, 2014 depicted by yellow/gray shades as it propagates westward toward the Caribbean. The SAL’s leading edge (yellow dashed curve) approaches Ragged Point, Barbados (RP) on 24 June, and Puerto Rico (PR) a day later. Sun glint features are shown as brightened features in a NW-SE orientation throughout each image.

Left: Outbreak of large Saharan dust outbreak off of NW Africa about to propagate westward across the tropical Atlantic basin. Right: Cartoon highlighting the three dimensional dynamic and structural characteristics of the SAL and its extent across the north tropical Atlantic basin. SAL events pose great hazardous conditions for Caribbean communities because of its harmful respiratory impacts especially to young and older residents.

One year study that compares NAAPS with its operational use of MODIS-only AOD data assimilation vs the next generation MODIS+VIIRS AOD data assimilation using AERONET level 2 data as ground truth.

Set of panels showcasing the improvements of the new Enterprise version of VIIRS AOD (right) vs the current IDPS version (left).

Case study of SAL event utilizing a variety of NRL-MMD products

Image courtesy of NOAA

Modeling SAL events with NRL-MMD Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS)

(a) (b) (d) (c) (e)

Overview of Saharan Air Layer (SAL) NRL-MMD efforts within SAL project

Karyampudi, et al., BAMS, 1999