This dissertation presents a scientific framework that facilitates enhanced understanding of aerosol source - receptor (S/R) relationships and their impact on the local, regional and global air quality by employing a complementary suite of modeling methods. The receptor - oriented Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) technique is combined with Potential Source Contribution Function (PSCF), a trajectory ensemble model, to characterize sources influencing the aerosols measured at Gosan, Korea during spring 2001. It is found that the episodic dust events originating from desert regions in East Asia (EA) that mix with pollution along the transit path, have a significant and pervasive impact on the air quality of Gosan. The intercontinental and hemispheric transport of aerosols is analyzed by a series of emission perturbation simulations with the Sulfur Transport and dEposition Model (STEM), a regional scale Chemical Transport Model (CTM), evaluated with observations from the 2008 NASA ARCTAS field campaign. This modeling study shows that pollution transport from regions outside North America (NA) contributed ∼ 30 and 20% to NA sulfate and BC surface concentration. This study also identifies aerosols transported from Europe, NA and EA regions as significant contributors to springtime Arctic sulfate and BC. Trajectory ensemble models are combined with source region tagged tracer model output to identify the source regions and possible instances of quasi-lagrangian sampled air masses during the 2006 NASA INTEX-B field campaign. The impact of specific emission sectors from Asia during the INTEX-B period is studied with the STEM model, identifying residential sector as potential target for emission reduction to combat global warming. The output from the STEM model constrained with satellite derived aerosol optical depth and ground based measurements of single scattering albedo via an optimal interpolation assimilation scheme is combined with the PMF technique to characterize the seasonality and regional distribution of aerosols in Asia. This innovative analysis framework that combines the output from source - oriented chemical transport models with receptor models is shown to reduce the uncertainty in aerosol distributions, which in turn leads to better estimates of source - receptor relationships and impact assessments of aerosol radiative forcing and health effects due to air pollution.

This thesis presents the use of data assimilation with optimal interpolation (OI) to develop atmospheric aerosol concentration estimates for the United States at high spatial and temporal resolutions. Concentration estimates are highly desirable for a wide range of applications, including visibility, climate, and human health. OI is a viable data assimilation method that can be used to improve Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model fine particulate matter (PM2.5) estimates. PM2.5 is the mass of solid and liquid particles with diameters less than or equal to 2.5 μm suspended in the gas phase. OI was employed by combining model estimates with satellite and surface measurements. The satellite data assimilation combined 36 x 36 km aerosol concentrations from CMAQ with aerosol optical depth (AOD) measured by MODIS and AERONET over the continental United States for 2002. Posterior model concentrations generated by the OI algorithm were compared with surface PM2.5 measurements to evaluate a number of possible data assimilation parameters, including model error, observation error, and temporal averaging assumptions. Evaluation was conducted separately for six geographic U.S. regions in 2002. Variability in model error and MODIS biases limited the effectiveness of a single data assimilation system for the entire continental domain. The best combinations of four settings and three averaging schemes led to a domain-averaged improvement in fractional error from 1.2 to 0.97 and from 0.99 to 0.89 at respective IMPROVE and STN monitoring sites. For 38% of OI results, MODIS OI degraded the forward model skill due to biases and outliers in MODIS AOD. Surface data assimilation combined 36 × 36 km aerosol concentrations from the CMAQ model with surface PM2.5 measurements over the continental United States for 2002. The model error covariance matrix was constructed by using the observational method. The observation error covariance matrix included site representation that scaled the observation error by land use (i.e. urban or rural locations). In theory, urban locations should have less effect on surrounding areas than rural sites, which can be controlled using site representation error. The annual evaluations showed substantial improvements in model performance with increases in the correlation coefficient from 0.36 (prior) to 0.76 (posterior), and decreases in the fractional error from 0.43 (prior) to 0.15 (posterior). In addition, the normalized mean error decreased from 0.36 (prior) to 0.13 (posterior), and the RMSE decreased from 5.39 μg m-3 (prior) to 2.32 μg m-3 (posterior). OI decreased model bias for both large spatial areas and point locations, and could be extended to more advanced data assimilation methods. The current work will be applied to a five year (2000-2004) CMAQ simulation aimed at improving aerosol model estimates. The posterior model concentrations will be used to inform exposure studies over the U.S. that relate aerosol exposure to mortality and morbidity rates. Future improvements for the OI techniques used in the current study will include combining both surface and satellite data to improve posterior model estimates. Satellite data have high spatial and temporal resolutions in comparison to surface measurements, which are scarce but more accurate than model estimates. The satellite data are subject to noise affected by location and season of retrieval. The implementation of OI to combine satellite and surface data sets has the potential to improve posterior model estimates for locations that have no direct measurements.

abstract: This thesis outlines the development of a vector retrieval technique, based on data assimilation, for a coherent Doppler LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). A detailed analysis of the Optimal Interpolation (OI) technique for vector retrieval is presented. Through several modifications to the OI technique, it is shown that the modified technique results in significant improvement in velocity retrieval accuracy. These modifications include changes to innovation covariance portioning, covariance binning, and analysis increment calculation. It is observed that the modified technique is able to make retrievals with better accuracy, preserves local information better, and compares well with tower measurements. In order to study the error of representativeness and vector retrieval error, a lidar simulator was constructed. Using the lidar simulator a thorough sensitivity analysis of the lidar measurement process and vector retrieval is carried out. The error of representativeness as a function of scales of motion and sensitivity of vector retrieval to look angle is quantified. Using the modified OI technique, study of nocturnal flow in Owens' Valley, CA was carried out to identify and understand uncharacteristic events on the night of March 27th 2006. Observations from 1030 UTC to 1230 UTC (0230 hr local time to 0430 hr local time) on March 27 2006 are presented. Lidar observations show complex and uncharacteristic flows such as sudden bursts of westerly cross-valley wind mixing with the dominant up-valley wind. Model results from Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS®) and other in-situ instrumentations are used to corroborate and complement these observations. The modified OI technique is used to identify uncharacteristic and extreme flow events at a wind development site. Estimates of turbulence and shear from this technique are compared to tower measurements. A formulation for equivalent wind speed in the presence of variations in wind speed and direction, combined with shear is developed and used to determine wind energy content in presence of turbulence. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering 2013

This thesis presents our efforts to build an operational ensemble forecasting system for the Red Sea, based on the Data Research Testbed (DART) package for ensemble data assimilation and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation ocean model (MITgcm) for forecasting. The Red Sea DART-MITgcm system efficiently integrates all the ensemble members in parallel, while accommodating different ensemble assimilation schemes. The promising ensemble adjustment Kalman filter (EAKF), designed to avoid manipulating the gigantic covariance matrices involved in the ensemble assimilation process, possesses relevant features required for an operational setting. The need for more efficient filtering schemes to implement a high resolution assimilation system for the Red Sea and to handle large ensembles for proper description of the assimilation statistics prompted the design and implementation of new filtering approaches. Making the most of our world-class supercomputer, Shaheen, we first pushed the system limits by designing a fault-tolerant scheduler extension that allowed us to test for the first time a fully realistic and high resolution 1000 ensemble members ocean ensemble assimilation system. In an operational setting, however, timely forecasts are of essence, and running large ensembles, albeit preferable and desirable, is not sustainable. New schemes aiming at lowering the computational burden while preserving reliable assimilation results, were developed. The ensemble Optimal Interpolation (EnOI) algorithm requires only a single model integration in the forecast step, using a static ensemble of preselected members for assimilation, and is therefore computationally significantly cheaper than the EAKF. To account for the strong seasonal variability of the Red Sea circulation, an EnOI with seasonally-varying ensembles (SEnOI) was first implemented. To better handle intra-seasonal variabilities and enhance the developed seasonal EnOI system, an automatic procedure to adaptively select the ensemble members through the assimilation cycles was then introduced. Finally, an efficient Hybrid scheme combining the dynamical flow-dependent covariance of the EAKF and a static covariance of the EnOI was proposed and successfully tested in the Red Sea. The developed Hybrid ensemble data assimilation system will form the basis of the first operational Red Sea forecasting system that is currently being implemented to support Saudi Aramco operations in this basin.

Image super-resolution aims to produce a higher resolution representation of a scene from an ensemble of low-resolution images that may be warped, aliased, blurred and degraded by noise. There are a variety of methods for performing super-resolution described in the literature, and in general they consist of three major steps: image registration, fusion and deblurring. This thesis proposes a novel method of performing the first two of these steps. The ultimate aim of image super-resolution is to produce a higher-quality image that is visually clearer, sharper and contains more detail than the individual input images. Machine algorithms can not assess images qualitatively and typically use a quantitative error criterion, often least-squares. This thesis aims to optimise leastsquares directly using a fast method, in particular one that can be implemented using linear filters; hence, a closed-form solution is required. The concepts of optimal interpolation and resampling are derived and demonstrated in practice. Optimal filters optimised on one image are shown to perform nearoptimally on other images, suggesting that common image features, such as stepedges, can be used to optimise a near-optimal filter without requiring the knowledge of the ground-truth output. This leads to the construction of a pulse model, which is used to derive filters for resampling non-uniformly sampled images that result from the fusion of registered input images. An experimental comparison shows that a 10th order pulse model-based filter outperforms a number of methods common in the literature. The use of optimal interpolation for image registration linearises an otherwise nonlinear problem, resulting in a direct solution. Experimental analysis is used to show that optimal interpolation-based registration outperforms a number of existing methods, both iterative and direct, at a range of noise levels and for both heavily aliased images and images with a limited degree of aliasing. The proposed method offers flexibility in terms of the size of the region of support, offering a good trade-off in terms of computational complexity and accuracy of registration. Together, optimal interpolation-based registration and fusion are shown to perform fast, direct and effective super-resolution.

Image super-resolution aims to produce a higher resolution representation of a scene from an ensemble of low-resolution images that may be warped, aliased, blurred and degraded by noise. There are a variety of methods for performing super-resolution described in the literature, and in general they consist of three major steps: image registration, fusion and deblurring. This thesis proposes a novel method of performing the first two of these steps. The ultimate aim of image super-resolution is to produce a higher-quality image that is visually clearer, sharper and contains more detail than the individual input images. Machine algorithms can not assess images qualitatively and typically use a quantitative error criterion, often least-squares. This thesis aims to optimise leastsquares directly using a fast method, in particular one that can be implemented using linear filters; hence, a closed-form solution is required. The concepts of optimal interpolation and resampling are derived and demonstrated in practice. Optimal filters optimised on one image are shown to perform nearoptimally on other images, suggesting that common image features, such as stepedges, can be used to optimise a near-optimal filter without requiring the knowledge of the ground-truth output. This leads to the construction of a pulse model, which is used to derive filters for resampling non-uniformly sampled images that result from the fusion of registered input images. An experimental comparison shows that a 10th order pulse model-based filter outperforms a number of methods common in the literature. The use of optimal interpolation for image registration linearises an otherwise nonlinear problem, resulting in a direct solution. Experimental analysis is used to show that optimal interpolation-based registration outperforms a number of existing methods, both iterative and direct, at a range of noise levels and for both heavily aliased images and images with a limited degree of aliasing. The proposed method offers flexibility in terms of the size of the region of support, offering a good trade-off in terms of computational complexity and accuracy of registration. Together, optimal interpolation-based registration and fusion are shown to perform fast, direct and effective super-resolution.

Image super-resolution aims to produce a higher resolution representation of a scene from an ensemble of low-resolution images that may be warped, aliased, blurred and degraded by noise. There are a variety of methods for performing super-resolution described in the literature, and in general they consist of three major steps: image registration, fusion and deblurring. This thesis proposes a novel method of performing the first two of these steps. The ultimate aim of image super-resolution is to produce a higher-quality image that is visually clearer, sharper and contains more detail than the individual input images. Machine algorithms can not assess images qualitatively and typically use a quantitative error criterion, often least-squares. This thesis aims to optimise leastsquares directly using a fast method, in particular one that can be implemented using linear filters; hence, a closed-form solution is required. The concepts of optimal interpolation and resampling are derived and demonstrated in practice. Optimal filters optimised on one image are shown to perform nearoptimally on other images, suggesting that common image features, such as stepedges, can be used to optimise a near-optimal filter without requiring the knowledge of the ground-truth output. This leads to the construction of a pulse model, which is used to derive filters for resampling non-uniformly sampled images that result from the fusion of registered input images. An experimental comparison shows that a 10th order pulse model-based filter outperforms a number of methods common in the literature. The use of optimal interpolation for image registration linearises an otherwise nonlinear problem, resulting in a direct solution. Experimental analysis is used to show that optimal interpolation-based registration outperforms a number of existing methods, both iterative and direct, at a range of noise levels and for both heavily aliased images and images with a limited degree of aliasing. The proposed method offers flexibility in terms of the size of the region of support, offering a good trade-off in terms of computational complexity and accuracy of registration. Together, optimal interpolation-based registration and fusion are shown to perform fast, direct and effective super-resolution.

Image super-resolution aims to produce a higher resolution representation of a scene from an ensemble of low-resolution images that may be warped, aliased, blurred and degraded by noise. There are a variety of methods for performing super-resolution described in the literature, and in general they consist of three major steps: image registration, fusion and deblurring. This thesis proposes a novel method of performing the first two of these steps. The ultimate aim of image super-resolution is to produce a higher-quality image that is visually clearer, sharper and contains more detail than the individual input images. Machine algorithms can not assess images qualitatively and typically use a quantitative error criterion, often least-squares. This thesis aims to optimise leastsquares directly using a fast method, in particular one that can be implemented using linear filters; hence, a closed-form solution is required. The concepts of optimal interpolation and resampling are derived and demonstrated in practice. Optimal filters optimised on one image are shown to perform nearoptimally on other images, suggesting that common image features, such as stepedges, can be used to optimise a near-optimal filter without requiring the knowledge of the ground-truth output. This leads to the construction of a pulse model, which is used to derive filters for resampling non-uniformly sampled images that result from the fusion of registered input images. An experimental comparison shows that a 10th order pulse model-based filter outperforms a number of methods common in the literature. The use of optimal interpolation for image registration linearises an otherwise nonlinear problem, resulting in a direct solution. Experimental analysis is used to show that optimal interpolation-based registration outperforms a number of existing methods, both iterative and direct, at a range of noise levels and for both heavily aliased images and images with a limited degree of aliasing. The proposed method offers flexibility in terms of the size of the region of support, offering a good trade-off in terms of computational complexity and accuracy of registration. Together, optimal interpolation-based registration and fusion are shown to perform fast, direct and effective super-resolution.

Image super-resolution aims to produce a higher resolution representation of a scene from an ensemble of low-resolution images that may be warped, aliased, blurred and degraded by noise. There are a variety of methods for performing super-resolution described in the literature, and in general they consist of three major steps: image registration, fusion and deblurring. This thesis proposes a novel method of performing the first two of these steps. The ultimate aim of image super-resolution is to produce a higher-quality image that is visually clearer, sharper and contains more detail than the individual input images. Machine algorithms can not assess images qualitatively and typically use a quantitative error criterion, often least-squares. This thesis aims to optimise leastsquares directly using a fast method, in particular one that can be implemented using linear filters; hence, a closed-form solution is required. The concepts of optimal interpolation and resampling are derived and demonstrated in practice. Optimal filters optimised on one image are shown to perform nearoptimally on other images, suggesting that common image features, such as stepedges, can be used to optimise a near-optimal filter without requiring the knowledge of the ground-truth output. This leads to the construction of a pulse model, which is used to derive filters for resampling non-uniformly sampled images that result from the fusion of registered input images. An experimental comparison shows that a 10th order pulse model-based filter outperforms a number of methods common in the literature. The use of optimal interpolation for image registration linearises an otherwise nonlinear problem, resulting in a direct solution. Experimental analysis is used to show that optimal interpolation-based registration outperforms a number of existing methods, both iterative and direct, at a range of noise levels and for both heavily aliased images and images with a limited degree of aliasing. The proposed method offers flexibility in terms of the size of the region of support, offering a good trade-off in terms of computational complexity and accuracy of registration. Together, optimal interpolation-based registration and fusion are shown to perform fast, direct and effective super-resolution.

Image super-resolution aims to produce a higher resolution representation of a scene from an ensemble of low-resolution images that may be warped, aliased, blurred and degraded by noise. There are a variety of methods for performing super-resolution described in the literature, and in general they consist of three major steps: image registration, fusion and deblurring. This thesis proposes a novel method of performing the first two of these steps. The ultimate aim of image super-resolution is to produce a higher-quality image that is visually clearer, sharper and contains more detail than the individual input images. Machine algorithms can not assess images qualitatively and typically use a quantitative error criterion, often least-squares. This thesis aims to optimise leastsquares directly using a fast method, in particular one that can be implemented using linear filters; hence, a closed-form solution is required. The concepts of optimal interpolation and resampling are derived and demonstrated in practice. Optimal filters optimised on one image are shown to perform nearoptimally on other images, suggesting that common image features, such as stepedges, can be used to optimise a near-optimal filter without requiring the knowledge of the ground-truth output. This leads to the construction of a pulse model, which is used to derive filters for resampling non-uniformly sampled images that result from the fusion of registered input images. An experimental comparison shows that a 10th order pulse model-based filter outperforms a number of methods common in the literature. The use of optimal interpolation for image registration linearises an otherwise nonlinear problem, resulting in a direct solution. Experimental analysis is used to show that optimal interpolation-based registration outperforms a number of existing methods, both iterative and direct, at a range of noise levels and for both heavily aliased images and images with a limited degree of aliasing. The proposed method offers flexibility in terms of the size of the region of support, offering a good trade-off in terms of computational complexity and accuracy of registration. Together, optimal interpolation-based registration and fusion are shown to perform fast, direct and effective super-resolution.