Wildland Fire Smoke from Long-Range Transport Enhances Ozone in the Southeastern United States
Abstract
Recent massive wildfire events provide increasing evidence that smoke can have a substantial impact on air quality hundreds, or even thousands, of miles away from the wildfire. In this presentation, we use earth observations and ground-based measurements to assess a high ozone event in September 2017. Smoke from dozens of large, fast-burning wildland fires in the northwestern United States was transported over 1,500 miles to the Southeastern U.S. As a result, on September 14, 2017, air quality monitoring sites across Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma measured unusually high ozone concentrations.
Using satellite retrievals of smoke aerosols and carbon monoxide, along with aerosol vertical profiles and meteorological models, we show that smoke from northwestern fires was transported to the Southeastern U.S. over the course of a week. We then use data from meteorological models, a ceilometer, and radiosondes to show that smoke aloft was likely transported to the surface on the day of the ozone event. Finally, we use ground measurements of ozone, PM2.5, and other pollutants, as well as regression analysis using Generalized Additive Modeling, to demonstrate that surface air quality was actually affected by the smoke. The results of this analysis suggest that air quality may be more frequently impacted by distant wildfires than currently acknowledged. Earth observation data sets combined with meteorological models and ground-based measurements provide an opportunity to detect and track these events using automated analyses, potentially providing improved awareness to impacted communities.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMGC43D..08P
- Keywords:
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- 0315 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 0439 Ecosystems;
- structure and dynamics;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0468 Natural hazards;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 1631 Land/atmosphere interactions;
- GLOBAL CHANGE