Science Colloquium
Measurement and Modeling of Aerosol Pollution over Canada: A Brief Overview of the Environmental Impact of Aerosols
Dr. Norman O'Neill
Universite de Sherbrooke
Thursday, February 23, 2006
12:00 - 12:50 PM
Johnson Room 20
In March of 2005 a very thin dust cloud passed over British Columbia. This dust cloud was detected by an array of ground-based optical instruments at Vancouver and was traced, using satellite imagery and microphysical transport models, to a dust storm in Algeria which had occurred 14 days before. This unprecedented observational capability underscores two rather important truths in atmospheric remote sensing (RS); (a) that we live in a revolutionary age of synchronized multi-source data and improved model performance which permits the unambiguous detection of weak atmospheric events and (b) that even our relatively pristine Canadian air is influenced by worldwide aerosol sources. Examples will be given of global, national and regional transport of aerosols which demonstrate the variability of aerosol types (dust, smoke, pollution, etc.), their size and concentration, and their shape. These examples will be put into a context of the simple physics required to understand the optical and radiative transfer influence of different aerosol properties. The presentation will conclude with a brief discussion of the climate and health effects of aerosols over Canada.
