2000 EARTH SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| AFRICAN "RIVER OF SMOKE" AND CLIMATE CHANGE: EARLY RESULTS FROM THE SAFARI 2000 MISSION | G00-099 | 11/28/00 | 00:10:51 | The fires that raged across southern Africa this past summer produced a thick "river of smoke" that observers compared with the aftermath of the Kuwaiti oil fires in 1991. But those fires also released high concentrations of aerosols and ozone into the atmosphere, which in turn can affect climate change. This resource package highlights some of the early results from the SAFARI 2000 field campaign to southern Africa in August and September of 2000. The aerosols and ozone produced by grassland and domestic fires and industrial pollution may be adding to the greenhouse warming effect in southern Africa. These findings will lead to improved air pollution policies in the region and a better understanding of the pollution and its impact on climate change.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): Satellite View ofFires And Aerosol - Multiple fires are burning across the southern part of the African continent in September 2000, as shown by data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on board the NOAA-14 satellite. The unprecedented amount of fires generated large amounts of aerosols, (overlaid on top,) which were observed with the Earth Probe Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument.
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| ITEM (2): Satellite View of Ozone - High levels of ozone, a component of smog, were also produced by the fires in southern Africa. Ozone from the inland fires concentrates and flows east to the Indian Ocean and west over the Atlantic. The ozone levels were frequently similar to those found in air pollution alerts in major U.S. cities. This data was also acquired by Earth Probe TOMS in September 2000.
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| ITEM (3): Sunlight Absorbed by AeroSsols - Aerosols sampled during the SAFARI 2000 campaign were more heat-absorbing than expected. Thus, the haze layer may have a significant warming influence on the region's atmosphere.
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| ITEM (4): Sunlight Reflected by Aerosols - Aerosols in this type of haze are usually thought to reflect sunlight back into space, thereby cooling the atmosphere.
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| ITEM (5): B-Roll of Fire Sources That Contribute to Air Pollution in Southern Africa : A) Grassland Fires
B) Industrial Fires- pollution from factories
C) Domestic Fires- burning of wood for heating of homes and for cooking
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| ITEM (6): Aerial View of Fires - This footage of the fires was taken on August 20, 2000 above the Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa near the border of Botswana.
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| ITEM (7): Line of Fire in MadikweGame Reserve - Using data taken from a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) airborne simulator aboard NASA's ER-2 aircraft, the same burning region in the Madikwe Game Reserve is highlighted. The region is shown first in visible light, with smoke plumes. The simulator then peers through the smoke to view the fires.
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| ITEM (8): B-Roll of Different Types of Instrumentation Used DUuring SAFARI 2000 - With instruments on the ground, in the air and in space, scientists were able to sample the chemistry and measure the thickness of the smoke plumes, map movements of the plumes and investigate how smoke and other fine aerosol particles affect clouds.
A) Ground-based instruments on a tower in the African savannah
B) NASA's ER-2 research airplane and University of Washington's Convair-580 airplane
C) Remote sensing from space using both the Terra and Landsat 7 satellites
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Earth Science Gallery