Evaluating the MISR Plume Height Project dataset: A comparison of MISR-derived landscape fire plume heights with remote sensing lidar data

Each year, landscape fires across the globe emit over 2 Pg of carbon and nearly 40 Tg of total particulate matter (smoke) into the atmosphere (van der Werf et al., 2017). The smoke from these fires circumnavigates the globe and can disrupt the Hadley Circulation, influence the radiation budget, modify the physical properties of clouds, and suppress hurricane formation, to name a few. Knowing the altitude at which this smoke is injected into the atmosphere is critical for modeling and understanding its impact on climate. Here we introduce the MISR Plume Height Project (MPHP), a comprehensive dataset of fire smoke plume heights retrieved by a team of researchers from the Multi-Angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR), and compare these MPHP data to temporally and spatially coincident CALIOP lidar retrievals of vertical smoke aerosol concentrations. We show that, after accounting for differences in retrieval mechanisms, time of day, and instrument limitations, the MISR plume height retrievals generally match the CALIOP lidar retrievals, a result that supports the accuracy and robustness of MPHP plume height estimates.