The indian sub-continent (ISC) is home to 25% of the world􀁅s population, where residents are subjected to annual mean levels of particulate pollution that exceed world health organization standards by…

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Shared Services Center awarded a $158,268.79 grant for research to the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), doing business as U.S.R.A. The grant supports a comprehensive multi-sensor and interdisciplinary study of biomass burning and associated smoke aerosols over the Indian Subcontinent. The research aims to characterize the fire patterns, evaluate the column-to-surface aerosol relationship, estimate the aerosol radiative effects, and quantify the impacts on air quality. USRA, a nonprofit organization, has extensive experience conducting research and providing services to NASA, DOD, and other agencies across a range of space science and engineering disciplines.

The indian sub-continent (ISC) is home to 25% of the world􀁅s population, where residents are subjected to annual mean levels of particulate pollution that exceed world health organization standards by seven to ten-fold. During the first week of november 2016, level of harmful particulate matters measured in the capital city of india were higher than those measured during the infamous 1952 london smog event. These particles in the ISC not only harm human health, agricultural productivity, biodiversity and ecosystems, but they also affect regional climate by perturbing earth􀁅s radiation budget. The source of these aerosol particles include burning of fossil fuels and biofuels, as well as dust in some seasons, but of particular interest are smoke aerosols from biomass burning in the form of crop residues, forest and open fires. Due to the multiple sources of pollution, the biomass burning contribution to total aerosol loading often becomes a topic of debate among scientific and regulatory agencies. Informed policy and decision-making requires new understanding of the role of biomass burning in the aerosol loading over the ISC, its spatial and temporal characteristics, possibility of long-term trends and implications for air quality and climate. We propose a comprehensive multi-sensor and interdisciplinary study of the fires and smoke in the ISC, making use of a suite of state-of-art satellite instruments (modis, ceres, viirs, calipso), untapped ground measurements (AOD, PM2.5), and NASA􀁅s advanced modeling and data assimilation system (geos). Specifically we propose to 1) characterize the fire patterns, associated aerosol loading, its spatial, seasonal and long-term trends; 2) evaluate column-to-surface relationship of aerosols during high and low fire activities; 3) estimate the aerosol radiative effect and evaluate the long term changes corresponding to the fires and aerosol patterns; 4) perform model simulations to quantify the impacts of fires on local, and regional air quality; and 5) create an online data analysis and visualization system for policy and decision makers. We expect that the outcome of the proposed research will help US address the scientific objective of this study, which is􀁅how does biomass burning in the ISC affect aerosol loading, PM2.5 concentrations and aerosol radiative effects, and how do these effects vary spatially and seasonally over the past two decades?􀁅 the proposed research plan also provides US with the opportunity to take on several challenges, including: 1) separating biomassburning signal from total aerosol loading in the atmosphere; 2) retrieval uncertainties associated with satellite products; 3) limited ground measurements for validation; 4) challenges associated with emission inventories in model simulations and finally delivering a comprehensive data visualization system, which encourages informed policy and decision making activities for the sustainable development of the region. We are confident that the proposal team is well equipped and capable to carry out the proposed work within the stipulated time period.