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Monitoring biomass burning and aerosol loading and transport from a geostationary satellite perspective

Conference ·
OSTI ID:535160
The topic of this paper is the use of geostationary operational environmental satellites (GOES) to monitor trends in biomass burning and aerosol production and transport in South America and through the Western Hemisphere. The GOES Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (ABBA) was developed to provide diurnal information concerning fires in South America; applications demonstrating the ability to document long-term trends in fire activity are described. Analyses of imagery collected by GOES-8 is described; six biomass burning seasons in South America revealed many examples of large-scale smoke transport extending over several million square kilometers. Four major transport regimes were identified. Case studies throughout South America, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala have successfully demonstrated the improved capability of GOES-8 for fire and smoke monitoring in various ecosystems. Global geostationary fire monitoring will be possible with the launch of new satellites. 12 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab.
OSTI ID:
535160
Report Number(s):
CONF-960146--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English