NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The development of remote sensing satellite technology potentially will lead to the technical means to monitor air pollution emitted from large cities on a global basis. This paper presents observations by the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) and measurements of pollution in the troposphere (MOPITT) experiments of aerosol optical depths and CO mixing ratios, respectively, in the vicinity of Mexico City to illustrate current satellite capabilities. MOPITT CO mixing ratios over Mexico City, averaged between January–March 2002–2005, are 19% above regional values and the CO plume extends over 1012 in the free troposphere at 500 hPa. Time series of Red Automatica de Monitoreo Ambiental (RAMA) PM10, and (Aerosol Robotic Network) AERONET and MODIS aerosol optical depths, and RAMA and MOPITT CO time series are inter-compared to illustrate the different perspectives of ground based and satellite instrumentation. Finally, we demonstrate, by examining MODIS and MOPITT data in April 2003, that satellite data can be used to identify episodes in which pollution form fires influences the time series of ground based and satellite observations of urban pollution.