Papers by Jessica McCarty
This article is a review of the science goals and activities initiated within the framework of th... more This article is a review of the science goals and activities initiated within the framework of the
Pollution and its Impacts on the South American Cryosphere (PISAC) initiative. Air pollution associated
with biomass burning and urban emissions affects extensive areas of South America. We focus on black
carbon (BC) aerosol and its impacts on air quality, water availability, and climate, with an emphasis on the
Andean cryosphere. BC is one of the key short-lived climate pollutants that is a topic of growing interest
for near-term mitigation of these issues. Limited scientific evidence indicates that the Andean cryosphere
has already responded to climate change with receding glaciers and snow cover, which directly affect
water resources, agriculture, and energy production in the Andean region of South America. Despite the
paucity of systematic observations along the Andes, a few studies have detected BC on snow and glaciers
in the Andes. These, in addition to existing and projected emissions and weather patterns, suggest a possible
contribution of BC to the observed retreat of the Andean cryosphere. Here we provide an overview
of the current understanding of these issues from scientific and policy perspectives, and propose strategic
expansions to the relevant measurement infrastructure in the region.
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New media are increasingly used to capture ambient and volunteered geographic information in mult... more New media are increasingly used to capture ambient and volunteered geographic information in multiple contexts, from mapping the evolution of the social movements to tracking infectious disease. The social media platform Twitter is popular for these applications; it boasts over 500 million messages ('tweets') generated every day from as many total users at an average rate of 5,700 messages per second. In the United States, Japan, and Chile to name a few, Twitter is officially and unofficially used as an emergency notification and response system in the event of earthquakes, wildfires, and prescribed fires. A prototype for operational emergency detections from social media, specifically Twitter, was created using natural language processing and information retrieval techniques. The intent is to identify and locate emergency situations in the contiguous United States, namely prescribed fires, wildfires, and earthquakes, that are often missed by satellite detections. The authors present their methodologies and an evaluation of performance in collecting relevant tweets, extracting metrics such as area affected and geo-locating the events. Lessons learned from data mining Twitter for spatiotemporally-explicit information are included to inform future data mining research and applications.
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ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2015
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Environmental Research Letters, 2015
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Since its publication in 1980, the Seiler and Crutzen bottom-up method of estimating biomass burn... more Since its publication in 1980, the Seiler and Crutzen bottom-up method of estimating biomass burning emissions has become an accepted and standard approach cited in nearly 500 peer-reviewed scientific publications. As the science of biomass burning emissions advances, the need to quantify error in variable inputs has also grown. This research focuses on bottom-up emission estimates of black carbon (BC), CO2, CO, CH4, PM10, PM2.5, NO2, and SO2 from crop residue burning in the contiguous U.S. (CONUS) and the Russian Federation. Crop residue burning emissions for the CONUS were estimated for a five-year period, 2003 through 2007, using multispectral remote sensing-derived products, specifically multi-year crop type maps, an 8-day difference Normalized Burn Ratio product, and calibrated area estimates of cropland burning from 1 km MODIS Active Fire Points. An emission factor database was assembled from eleven published sources while fuel loads and combustion completeness were derived fr...
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Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 2011
Crop residue burning is an extensive agricultural practice in the contiguous United States (CONUS... more Crop residue burning is an extensive agricultural practice in the contiguous United States (CONUS). This analysis presents the results of a remote sensing-based study of crop residue burning emissions in the CONUS for the time period 2003-2007 for the atmospheric species of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2, sulfur dioxide (SO2), PM2.5 (particulate matter [PM] < or = 2.5 microm in aerodynamic diameter), and PM10 (PM < or = 10 microm in aerodynamic diameter). Cropland burned area and associated crop types were derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) products. Emission factors, fuel load, and combustion completeness estimates were derived from the scientific literature, governmental reports, and expert knowledge. Emissions were calculated using the bottom-up approach in which emissions are the product of burned area, fuel load, and combustion completeness for each specific crop type. On average, annual crop residue burning in the CONUS emitted 6.1 Tg of CO2, 8.9 Gg of CH4, 232.4 Gg of CO, 10.6 Gg of NO2, 4.4 Gg of SO2, 20.9 Gg of PM2.5, and 28.5 Gg of PM10. These emissions remained fairly consistent, with an average interannual variability of crop residue burning emissions of +/- 10%. The states with the highest emissions were Arkansas, California, Florida, Idaho, Texas, and Washington. Most emissions were clustered in the southeastern United States, the Great Plains, and the Pacific Northwest. Air quality and carbon emissions were concentrated in the spring, summer, and fall, with an exception because of winter harvesting of sugarcane in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. Sugarcane, wheat, and rice residues accounted for approximately 70% of all crop residue burning and associated emissions. Estimates of CO and CH4 from agricultural waste burning by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were 73 and 78% higher than the CO and CH4 emission estimates from this analysis, respectively. This analysis also showed that crop residue burning emissions are a minor source of CH4 emissions (< 1%) compared with the CH4 emissions from other agricultural sources, specifically enteric fermentation, manure management, and rice cultivation.
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ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2015
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Atmospheric Environment, 2012
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Environmental Science and Engineering, 2013
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Science of The Total Environment, 2009
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Journal of geophysical research. Biogeosciences, 2014
Fires in croplands, plantations, and rangelands contribute significantly to fire emissions in the... more Fires in croplands, plantations, and rangelands contribute significantly to fire emissions in the United States, yet are often overshadowed by wildland fires in efforts to develop inventories or estimate responses to climate change. Here we quantified decadal trends, interannual variability, and seasonality of Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations of active fires (thermal anomalies) as a function of management type in the contiguous U.S. during 2001-2010. We used the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity database to identify active fires within the perimeter of large wildland fires and land cover maps to identify active fires in croplands. A third class of fires defined as prescribed/other included all residual satellite active fire detections. Large wildland fires were the most variable of all three fire types and had no significant annual trend in the contiguous U.S. during 2001-2010. Active fires in croplands, in contrast, increased at a rate of 3....
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Thermal remote sensing has a wide range of applications, though the extent of its use is inhibite... more Thermal remote sensing has a wide range of applications, though the extent of its use is inhibited by cost. Robotic and computer components are now widely available to consumers on a scale that makes thermal data a readily accessible resource. In this project, thermal imagery collected via a lightweight remote sensing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was used to create a surface temperature map for the purpose of providing wildland firefighting crews with a cost-effective and time-saving resource. The UAV system proved to be flexible, allowing for customized sensor packages to be designed that could include visible or infrared cameras, GPS, temperature sensors, and rangefinders, in addition to many data management options. Altogether, such a UAV system could be used to rapidly collect thermal and aerial data, with a geographic accuracy of less than one meter.
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Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 2008
The 2003 active fire observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS),... more The 2003 active fire observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), on board NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites, were analyzed to assess burning activity in the cropland areas of the Mississippi River Valley region. Agricultural burning was found to be an important contributor to fire activity in this region, accounting for approximately one-third of all burning. Agricultural fire activity showed two seasonal peaks: the first, smaller peak, occurring in June during the spring harvesting of wheat; and the second, bigger peak, in October during the fall harvesting of rice and soy. The seasonal signal in agricultural burning was predominantly evident in the early afternoon MODIS Aqua fire detections. A strong diurnal agricultural fire signal was prevalent during the fall harvesting months, as suggested by the substantially higher number (approximately 3.5 times) of fires detected by MODIS Aqua in the early afternoon, compared with those detected by MODIS Terra in the morning. No diurnal variations in agricultural fire activity were apparent during the springtime wheat-harvesting season. The seasonal and diurnal patterns in agricultural fire activity detected by MODIS are supported by known crop management practices in this region. MODIS data provide an important means to characterize and monitor agricultural fire dynamics and management practices.
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Environmental Research Letters, 2014
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Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 2014
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The effectiveness of 18 alternative technologies for reducing odor dispersion at and beyond the b... more The effectiveness of 18 alternative technologies for reducing odor dispersion at and beyond the boundary of swine facilities was assessed in conjunction with an initiative sponsored through agreements between the Attorney General of North Carolina and Smithfield Foods, Premium Standard Farms, and Frontline Farmers. The trajectory and spatial distribution of odor emitted at each facility were modeled at 200 and 400 m downwind from each site under two meteorological conditions (daytime and nighttime) using a Eulerian-Lagrangian model. To predict the dispersion of odor downwind, the geographical area containing the odorant sources at each facility was partitioned into 10-m2 grids on the basis of satellite photographs and architectural drawings. Relative odorant concentrations were assigned to each grid point on the basis of intensity measurements made by the trained odor panel at each facility using a 9-point rating scale. The results of the modeling indicated that odor did not extend significantly beyond 400 m downwind of any of the test sites during the daytime when the layer of air above the earth's surface is usually turbulent. However, modeling indicated that odor from all full-scale farms extended beyond 400 m onto neighboring property in the evenings when deep surface cooling through long-wave radiation to space produces a stable (nocturnal) boundary layer. The results also indicated that swine housing, independent of waste management type, plays a significant role in odor downwind, as do odor sources of moderate to moderately high intensity that emanate from a large surface area such as a lagoon. Human odor assessments were utilized for modeling rather than instrument measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, or particulates less than 10 microm in diameter (PM10) because these physical measurements obtained simultaneously with human panel ratings were not found to accurately predict human odor intensity in the field.
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Biogeosciences Discussions, 2014
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Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 2006
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Journal of The Air & Waste Management Association, 2008
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Papers by Jessica McCarty
Pollution and its Impacts on the South American Cryosphere (PISAC) initiative. Air pollution associated
with biomass burning and urban emissions affects extensive areas of South America. We focus on black
carbon (BC) aerosol and its impacts on air quality, water availability, and climate, with an emphasis on the
Andean cryosphere. BC is one of the key short-lived climate pollutants that is a topic of growing interest
for near-term mitigation of these issues. Limited scientific evidence indicates that the Andean cryosphere
has already responded to climate change with receding glaciers and snow cover, which directly affect
water resources, agriculture, and energy production in the Andean region of South America. Despite the
paucity of systematic observations along the Andes, a few studies have detected BC on snow and glaciers
in the Andes. These, in addition to existing and projected emissions and weather patterns, suggest a possible
contribution of BC to the observed retreat of the Andean cryosphere. Here we provide an overview
of the current understanding of these issues from scientific and policy perspectives, and propose strategic
expansions to the relevant measurement infrastructure in the region.
Pollution and its Impacts on the South American Cryosphere (PISAC) initiative. Air pollution associated
with biomass burning and urban emissions affects extensive areas of South America. We focus on black
carbon (BC) aerosol and its impacts on air quality, water availability, and climate, with an emphasis on the
Andean cryosphere. BC is one of the key short-lived climate pollutants that is a topic of growing interest
for near-term mitigation of these issues. Limited scientific evidence indicates that the Andean cryosphere
has already responded to climate change with receding glaciers and snow cover, which directly affect
water resources, agriculture, and energy production in the Andean region of South America. Despite the
paucity of systematic observations along the Andes, a few studies have detected BC on snow and glaciers
in the Andes. These, in addition to existing and projected emissions and weather patterns, suggest a possible
contribution of BC to the observed retreat of the Andean cryosphere. Here we provide an overview
of the current understanding of these issues from scientific and policy perspectives, and propose strategic
expansions to the relevant measurement infrastructure in the region.