Using satellite snapshots of aerosol optical depth to constrain biomass burning emissions for global model applications

Biomass burning (BB) is one of the major sources of optically and chemically potent carbonaceous aerosols, gaseous aerosol precursors, and volatile organic compounds. It is, therefore, important to represent these emissions as accurately as possible in the global and regional models. Based on our method of using satellite snapshot of aerosol optical depth (AOD) to constrain biomass burning emissions in the Goddard Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport (GOCART) model (Petrenko e t al., JGR 2012), we now present key refinements and applications of this method. In order to understand and possibly quantify the differences between global models in simulating BB emissions, our group is leading the Biomass Burning experiment within the Aerosol Comparison between Observations and Models (AEROCOM) framework. With 14 models currently participating, we are starting to work with the rich dataset of model output to compare several aspects of simulated Biomass Burning aerosols in these models. We will present a reference dataset of biomass burning cases constructed specifically for this project, initial findings from comparing total AOD and BB AOD between the models and with the reference satellite dataset, and mention future directions of this project. We will also showcase our approach for treating AOD snapshots to be suitable for comparison with the global models, and its potential applications to other BB-related projects.