Dr. Travis Toth
Credentials: NASA Langley Research Center
Email: travis.d.toth@nasa.gov
Website: Dr. Travis Toth's website
Travis Toth is a Physical Scientist at NASA Langley Research Center, whose research centers on aerosol remote sensing and air quality applications using lidar observations. Travis has been a member of the CALIPSO team since 2018 and pioneered the first use of CALIPSO data to derive estimates of surface PM2.5 concentrations.
HAQAST Project: Improving PM2.5 Prediction and Analysis using Lidar Observations
Travis’s project will improve the prediction and analysis of PM2.5 pollution using spaceborne lidar observations, as these are useful yet significantly underutilized for air quality applications. Working with end-users at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, this project will use CALIOP observations and WRF-CMAQ simulation data from EPA’s Air QUAlity TimE Series (EQUATES) Project. The long-term lidar record will be leveraged for PM2.5 estimations and model evaluation efforts, laying the groundwork for greater integration of lidar data in air quality applications.
Project goals / deliverables:
- Evaluate surface layer aerosol extinction for the continental United States and Northern Hemisphere from the WRF-CMAQ model using near-surface CALIOP aerosol extinction retrievals.
- Develop a new combined model/lidar approach to estimate PM2.5 concentrations over VA and the continental United States.
- Derive PM2.5 concentrations using an established lidar-only approach over Virginia and the continental United States.
- Utilize CALIOP measurements to assess atmospheric aerosol vertical distribution and provide a long-term observational gridded dataset of the relationship between surface aerosol amount and total column aerosol loading (including on seasonal scales) for the continental United States and Northern Hemisphere.
Co-investigators and partners: James J. Szykman (NASA Langley Research Center), Melanie Follette-Cook (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), Barron Henderson (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), Rohit Mathur (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), Charles Turner (Virginia Department of Environmental Quality)