A007-0005
Comparison of dust forecast (GEOS-5 and WRF-Chem), satellite observations and ground-based aerosol measurements in the Caribbean region during the 2020 Summer African dust season

Monday, 7 December 2020
Poster
Josele Rosas-Nava1, Peter Richard Colarco2, Andrea M Sealy3, Ashford Reyes3, Hongbin Yu4, Brent Holben4, Daniel Brooks Otis5, Paquita Zuidema6, Bighnaraj Sarangi7, Angel Rios1, Sheilynette Perez1, Bianca Lee Martinez-Huertas8, Pedro Leon1, Elvis Torres-Delgado9 and Olga L Mayol-Bracero10, (1)University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus, Environmental Science, San Juan, PR, United States, (2)NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology, Bridgetown, Barbados, (4)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (5)University of South Florida St. Petersburg, IMaRS, St Petersburg, FL, United States, (6)University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States, (7)University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus, Environmental Science, San Juan, United States, (8)University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus, Chemistry, San Juan, PR, United States, (9)University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus, Department of Environmental Science, San Juan, PR, United States, (10)University of Puerto Rio Piedras Campus, Department of Environmental Science, San Juan, PR, United States
Abstract:
North African dust reaches the Caribbean region every summer supplying mineral dust particles which play an important role in the regional weather and public health. During the African dust season of summer 2020 several events, including the “Godzilla” mega dust event, were identified over the Caribbean. Under the framework of the NASA-funded project Caribbean Air-quality Alert and Management Assistance System-Public Health (CALIMA-PH), we compare results of the dust forecast models with the ground-based and satellite observations for events that happened in parallel with large convective systems over the region during June-July 2020. The models used are the global dust forecast model Goddard Earth Observing System-5 (GEOS-5) and the regional dust forecast model Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem). Satellite observations are from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO). Ground-based observations (e.g., aerosol optical depth (AOD), depolarization ratio, particulate matter, scattering Angstrom exponent (SAE), dust surface concentration, height of dust layer) were performed at seven different locations (Cayenne, Martinique, Guadeloupe -French Territories-, Barbados, Puerto Rico, Merida -Mexico- and Miami -USA-) over the Caribbean to provide a better understanding of African dust dispersal patterns over the region with a unique “Lagrangian” measurement, including the Godzilla mega dust event and tropical storms developed in the area. Results show that the dust forecast models were not always in agreement with the observations, and this was the particular case during the presence of tropical storms like Cristobal and Gonzalo. We will show the differences between the forecast provided by both models and the result of another run after ingesting the models with aerosol available data such as AOD.
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