overthepastdecadesvisibilitydatahavebeenusedto.docVIP

ASOS Visibility Data Evaluation and Analysis Background Over the past decades visibility data have been used to document the spatial and temporal pattern of atmospheric haziness over the US and also as a surrogate for the pattern and trends of fine particle mass. Starting in 1994-6, NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) in cooperation with FAA has been replacing human observers of visual range with automated light scattering instruments that can automatically monitor the haziness with high dynamic range, accuracy, and precision. The instrumental visibility data are part of the Automated Surface Observing System, ASOS. In 2001, the ASOS system consists of over 860 sites distributed rather uniformly over the country as seen in the station location map (Fig. 1). The network is operated jointly by FAA (535 sites), NWS (315) with participation from DOD. Fig 1. Location of ASOS monitoring stations over the US. In 2000, over 800 stations were distributed uniformly over the US. The ASOS sensor measures the extinction coefficient as one-minute averages. The visibility sensors in the new Automated Surface Observing Systems (ASOS), (/asos/vsby.htm) is a Belfort Model 6220 forward scatter instrument that illuminates the ambient air by a Xenon flash lamp and detects the forward scattering from dust, smoke, haze, as well as from rain, fog, and snow particles. The instrument is an accurate and reliable way of monitoring light scattering due to the variety of particles. The forward scattering signal can be meaningfully converted into visibility, i.e. the distance to which objects are discernable. The ASOS package also monitors, temperature, dew point, precipitation, and etc., which allows the separation of fog, rain, and snow from dust, smoke, and haze. Hence, it is also possible to relate the Sensor Equivalent Visibility (SEV) reported by ASOS to the in-situ concentrations of fine particle dust, smoke, and haze. Figure 2. Automated Surface Observing Systems (ASOS