Project δ: Implementation of Jupiter notebook for analysis of dust intrusions events on the western Iberian Peninsula from ground based and satellite observations
Instructor: Daniele Bortoli
Team Members
- Avinash Yadav
- Bruno Longarela
- Camelia Gînscă
- Garima Shukla
- Joseph O'Brien
- Nicole Liu
Description:
Aerosol monitoring is essential for understanding atmospheric processes, assessing air quality, and evaluating climate impacts. Mineral dust, particularly from the Sahara Desert, represents one of the most significant natural aerosol sources affecting Southern Europe. These dust intrusion events frequently reach the western Iberian Peninsula, influencing regional radiative balance, cloud formation, atmospheric chemistry, and public health. Ground-based observations provide high temporal resolution and detailed vertical profiling of aerosol properties, while satellite platforms offer broad spatial coverage and synoptic views of dust transport across large areas. The integration of both approaches is crucial for a comprehensive characterization of dust events, enabling validation of satellite products and improving the accuracy of numerical models. In this context, the development of interactive, reproducible computational tools becomes increasingly important for scientific research and operational monitoring. This work foresees the development and implementation of an interactive Jupyter Notebook designed for the systematic analysis of Saharan dust intrusion events affecting in particular the western Iberian Peninsula but it can be generalized for others regions. The notebook integrates multi-source data, combining ground-based remote sensing measurements from the Évora Atmospheric Sciences Observatory (EVASO) — including multi-wavelength Raman lidar, ceilometers, and sun photometers — with satellite observations from platforms such as MODIS, CALIPSO, and Sentinel-5. The tool will enable the students to: automatically detect and characterize dust events using ground- based lidar and photometric data; Visualize vertical profiles of aerosol optical properties (backscatter, extinction, depolarization); Compare and validate ground-based retrievals with satellite-derived aerosol products; Perform statistical analysis of dust frequency, intensity, and seasonal patterns; Generate publication-ready figures and reproducible reports.