Abstract

CRESPI ABRIL, Augusto César; MONTES, Alejandra María Isabel; WILLIAMS, Gabriela Noemí  and  CARRASCO, Mauro Fabián. Uso de sensores remotos para la detección de eventos de transporte eólico de sedimentos hacia ambientes marinos en Patagonia. Meteorologica [online]. 2016, vol.41, n.2, pp.33-47. ISSN 1850-468X.

In this paper, we studied eolian transport of mineral dust to marine environments of Patagonia using remote sensors. Six events were selected corresponding to the dates 22 and 23 of January of 2009, 28 of March of 2009, 11 and 12 of September of 2009 and 24 of January of 2010 because they presented sediment plumes and low cloud coverage in the scene. The events were studied using true color images of high resolution from MODIS sensor, using the sediment index estimated with bands centered in 2,13 mm and 0,469 mm, and atmospheric aerosol index in ultraviolet from OMI sensor. These tools were useful to detect the selected events. RGB images allowed to study each event with a high spatial resolution (250m), but this product is restricted to scenes with low cloud coverage. The sediment index increased the contrast of the plumes when the sediment is over seawater and this was used to determine the isolines that define the area. The aerosol index detected each event and this product has the main advantage that is not influenced by cloud coverage. However, the low spatial resolution (1ox1o) is a limiting factor to estimate the area of influence of the plumes. The maximum distance from coast to sea of the plumes was 450Km, reaching the continental slope and the total area of influence of these events was estimated in 420.998 Km2. On each case, wind intensity was higher than 40Km/h and visibility was reduced to less than 10Km, except in January 24 of 2010 that visibility was reduced to 25Km. The combined use of this tools provided a strong framework to study the eolian transport of mineral dust to sea in Patagonia to argentinean shelf.

Keywords : Atmospheric aerosols; Patagonia; Argentinean shelf.

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