Ozone Enhancement from Wildfire Smoke in Rural Mountainous Terrain

Wildfires emit a large amount of ozone (O3) precursors and particulate matter (PM) into the troposphere and sometimes stratosphere. With the increasing wildfire events in recent years, the western U.S. regions may experience challenges in higher than normal air pollution levels during fire season (June-October). Determining the ozone enhancement pattern from wildfire smoke is desired to understand the influence of wildfire plume transport on a subregional basis. This study investigates the ozone enhancement over rural Nevada mountainous terrain sites due to the 2013 Rim Fire. By analyzing regulatory, simulation, and remote sensing data for downwind and rural Nevada sites, it is observed that wind patterns, plume age, and the lifetime of biomass precursors have direct impacts on the concentration of O3. Measurements from the Nevada Rural Ozone Initiative (NVROI) are used to supplement regulartory surface-based ozone monitors, where NVROI provides data for rural and high-elevation locations. Data from Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and the Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling (CMAQ) system are used to evaluate plume transport at both the surface level and aloft, and we compared with observation data for performance comparison.