1998 EARTH SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
| |
Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| NASA MONITORS SMOG POLUTION FROM TROPICAL FIRES | G98-063 | 12/7/1998 | 00:11:09 | For the first time ever, real-time maps of tropospheric ozone levels in the tropics now are available to the world. Researchers from NASA and the University of Maryland have developed a new technique for retrieving near ground levels of ozone. |
TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): GLOBAL SMOG - Tropospheric ozone from NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) in 1997 and 1998. Scientists have developed new techniques that allow them to track tropical ozone pollution from large fires. Scientists can now monitor "trans-boundary pollution" where emissions from fires can drift over countries many miles away. Ozone from African savanna fires ends up over the Atlantic, the Pacific and even Brazil. Brazilian fires lead to ozone over the Atlantic and Pacific.
|
| ITEM (2): SMOG OVER INDONESIA - Tropospheric ozone from NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) in 1997 and 1998. Scientists were able to track ozone from the enormous fires in Indonesia resulting from the El Nino-driven drought. The fires sent smoke and tropospheric ozone pollution to highly populated areas in Malaysia.
|
| ITEM (3): SMOG OVER ATLANTIC - Tropospheric ozone from NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) in 1997 and 1998. Scientists have a special interest in smoke aerosols caused by fires because smoke contributes to the overall global air-pollution levels than can impact the quality of air that humans breathe. They also want to monitor smoke from large fires which may contribute to global climate change.
|
| ITEM (4): A FIRERY YEAR IN THE LIFE OF PLANET EARTH - Scientists are developing techniques to monitor fires over the entire planet so they can better understand patterns of biomass burning. Date source: NOAA's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instrument. Data collected in 1992-1993.
|
| ITEM (5): SMOKE AND AEROSOLS - INDONESIAN FIRES - Daily concentration of smoke and aerosol particles emitted from fires in Indonesia during late 1997 and early 1998. The small particles that comprise smoke, called aerosols, can affect the amount of energy reaching the Earth's surface by reflecting and/or absorbing sunlight. Smoke aerosols also can affect clouds by acting as small particles (condensation nuclei) upon which clouds can form. Clouds containing smoke aerosols are believed to reflect and absorb energy in different ways than clouds formed from other particles such as dust or sea salt.
|
| ITEM (6): SMOKE AND AEROSOLS - MEXICAN FIRES - Daily concentration of smoke and aerosol particles emitted from fires in Mexico during the spring of 1998. NASA atmospheric researchers closely monitored the smoke aerosols emitted from the fires with NASA's TOMS satellite. The smoke was thick enough that it was easily visible on the ground and resembled a light haze to medium fog in parts of Texas, Georgia,and Florida.
|
| ITEM (7): FIRE TOWERS IN SPACE - Smoke from fires raging in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula (June 5, 1998) and Indonesia (November, 1997 average) as seen from NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) on the SeaStar Satellite.
|
| ITEM (8): SEAWIFS ANIMATION - Animation of NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) on the SeaStar Satellite.
|
| ITEM (9): TOMS ANIMATION - Animation of the NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS).
|
| ITEM (10): INTERVIEW EXCERPT - DR. ANN THOMPSON, ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCHER, NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
|