Attribution and evolution of ozone from Asian wild fires using satellite and aircraft measurements during the ARCTAS campaign

Düpont, R.; Pierce, R. Bradley; Worden, J.; Hair, Johnathan; Fenn, M. A.; Hamer, P. D.; Natarajan, M.; Schaack, Todd K.; Lenzen, Allen; Apel, E. C.; Dibb, Jack E.; Diskin, G. S.; Huey, L. G.; Weinheimer, A. J.; Kondo, Yutaka; Knapp, D. J.

doi:10.5194/acp-12-169-2012

Cited by 21 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 103 publications

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“…The use of the mean monthly 8-hr max O 3 concentration as an indicator was corroborated by previous evidence that wildfires contribute episodically to high O 3 concentrations at receptor sites several days or weeks following the fire (Jaffe et al, 2004;Junquera et al, 2004;Pfister et al, 2006). For example, Dupont et al (2012) recently reported that two wildfires events in Asia influenced O 3 levels in the US after 10-12 days. During the analysis, we identified cases in which fire detection was observed after the highest O 3 concentration.…”

Section: Ozone Data Acquisition and Reductionsupporting

confidence: 50%

Assessment of the Contribution of Wildfires to Ozone Concentrations in the Central US-Mexico Border Region

Chalbot

Kavouras

DuBois

2013

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

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The annual trends and spatiotemporal patterns of monthly 8-hour maximum ozone (8-hr max O 3 ) concentrations in the Paso del Norte region were analyzed, and their associations with fires were examined for the 2001-2010 period. Hourly O 3 measurements were retrieved from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Air Quality System, while the times and locations of fires were acquired from the MODIS fire detection module. The absolute 8-hr max O 3 concentrations were comparable in urban, rural and background sites. Time series analysis of deseasonalized monthly 8-hr max O 3 levels showed statistically significant declining trends for most of the sites located in populated areas, and high correlation coefficients among these. Conversely, a 0.12 ppbv/yr increase of 8-hr max O 3 concentration was computed for Chiricahua, a background site located in a Class I protected area. Strong relationships between the monthly 8-hr max O 3 concentrations and categorical variables representing the number of fire detections for each month in six buffer zones were computed. Fire incidents near the sites (within 400 km) in central Arizona, central Texas and western Mexico triggered a decrease in the 8-hr max O 3 concentration by 1 to 12 ppbv in urban and rural sites, and an increase of 3 ppbv in Chiricahua. Conversely, fire incidents in southeast US, Cuba and central Mexico contributed from 5 up to 19 ppbv. These findings indicated that regional fire incidents may trigger high O 3 episodes, which may exceed air quality standards.

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Section: Ozone Data Acquisition and Reductionsupporting

confidence: 50%

Assessment of the Contribution of Wildfires to Ozone Concentrations in the Central US-Mexico Border Region

Chalbot

Kavouras

DuBois

2013

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

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“…Dupont et al (2012) made the observation that, in addition to photochemical production of O 3 from precursors formed in the plumes, exchange between the stratosphere and the troposphere was a major factor influencing O 3 concentrations in plumes measured during ARCTAS. Biomass burning emissions can be injected into the upper troposphere by isolated convection that is not fire related as well as by pyroconvection; are fire-aided convective processes capable of perturbing the tropopause and permitting O 3 from stratospheric air into the free troposphere?…”

Section: Stratosphere-troposphere Exchange Due To Pyroconvective Updrmentioning

confidence: 99%

ACE-FTS observations of pyrogenic trace species in boreal biomass burning plumes during BORTAS

et al. 2013

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To further our understanding of the effects of biomass burning emissions on atmospheric composition, the BORTAS campaign (BOReal forest fires on Tropospheric oxidants over the Atlantic using Aircraft and Satellites) was conducted on 12 July to 3 August 2011 during the boreal forest fire season in Canada. The simultaneous aerial, ground and satellite measurement campaign sought to record instances of boreal biomass burning to measure the tropospheric volume mixing ratios (VMRs) of short- and long-lived trace molecular species from biomass burning emissions. The goal was to investigate the connection between the composition and the distribution of these pyrogenic outflows and their resulting perturbation to atmospheric chemistry, with particular focus on oxidant species to determine the overall impact on the oxidizing capacity of the free troposphere.

Measurements of pyrogenic trace species in boreal biomass burning plumes were made by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) onboard the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) SCISAT-1 satellite during the BORTAS campaign. Even though biomass burning emissions are typically confined to the boundary layer, outflows are often injected into the upper troposphere by isolated convection and fire-related convective processes, thus allowing space-borne instruments to measure these pyrogenic outflows. An extensive set of 14 molecules – CH₃OH, C₂H₂, C₂H₆, C₃H₆O, CO, HCN, HCOOH, HNO₃, H₂CO, NO, NO₂, OCS, O₃, and PAN – have been analysed. Included in this analysis is the calculation of age-dependent sets of enhancement ratios for each of the species originating from fires in North America (Canada, Alaska) and Siberia for a period of up to 7 days. Ratio values for the shorter lived primary pyrogenic species decrease over time primarily due to oxidation by the OH radical as the plume ages and values for longer lived species such as HCN and C₂H₆ remain relatively unchanged. Increasing negative values are observed for the oxidant species, including O₃, indicating a destruction process in the plume as it ages such that concentrations of the oxidant species have dropped below their off-plume values.

Results from previous campaigns have indicated that values for the molar ratios of ΔO₃ /ΔO obtained from the measurements of the pyrogenic outflow from boreal fires are highly variable and range from negative to positive, irrespective of plume age. This variability has been attributed to pollution effects where the pyrogenic outflows have mixed with either local urban NO_x emissions or pyrogenic emissions from the long-range transport of older plumes, thus affecting the production of O₃ within the plumes. The results from this study have identified another potential cause of the variability in O₃ concentrations observed in the measurements of bi...

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“…Various systems for the generation of up-to-date, or even NRT global fire emission estimates have been reported Wiedinmyer et al, 2010). Chemical composition in fire plumes is assessed using a range of satellite instruments as well as model results from various systems, some of them including chemical data assimilation (Verma et al, 2009;Dupont et al, 2012;Val Martin et al, 2006;Real et al, 2007). Uncertainties in fire inventories on the modeling of atmospheric composition, e.g., Williams et al (2012), and long-range transport (Miller et al, 2011;McMillan et al, 2010;Elguindi et al, 2010) have previously been quantified.…”

Section: Huijnen Et Al: Tropospheric Composition During 2010 Russmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hindcast experiments of tropospheric composition during the summer 2010 fires over western Russia

Huijnen

Flemming²,

Kaiser³

et al. 2012

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. The severe wildfires in western Russia during July-August 2010 coincided with a strong heat wave and led to large emissions of aerosols and trace gases such as carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides into the troposphere. This extreme event is used to evaluate the ability of the global MACC (Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate) atmospheric composition forecasting system to provide analyses of large-scale pollution episodes and to test the respective influence of a priori emission information and data assimilation on the results. Daily 4-day hindcasts were conducted using assimilated aerosol optical depth (AOD), CO, nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) and ozone (O 3 ) data from a range of satellite instruments. Daily fire emissions were used from the Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) version 1.0, derived from satellite fire radiative power retrievals.The impact of accurate wildfire emissions is dominant on the composition in the boundary layer, whereas the assimilation system influences concentrations throughout the troposphere, reflecting the vertical sensitivity of the satellite instruments. The application of the daily fire emissions reduces the area-average mean bias by 63 % (for CO), 60 % (O 3 ) and 75 % (NO 2 ) during the first 24 h with respect to independent satellite observations, compared to a reference simulation with a multi-annual mean climatology of biomass burning emissions. When initial tracer concentrations are further constrained by data assimilation, biases are reduced by 87, 67 and 90 %. The forecast accuracy, quantified by the mean bias up to 96 h lead time, was best for all compounds when using both the GFAS emissions and assimilation. The model simulations suggest an indirect positive impact of O 3 and CO assimilation on hindcasts of NO 2 via changes in the oxidizing capacity.However, the quality of local hindcasts was strongly dependent on the assumptions made for forecasted fire emissions. This was well visible from a relatively poor forecast accuracy quantified by the root mean square error, as well as the temporal correlation with respect to ground-based CO total column data and AOD. This calls for a more advanced method to forecast fire emissions than the currently adopted persistency approach.The combined analysis of fire radiative power observations, multiple trace gas and aerosol satellite observations, as provided by the MACC system, results in a detailed quantitative description of the impact of major fires on atmospheric composition, and demonstrate the capabilities for the realtime analysis and forecasts of large-scale fire events.

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Attribution and evolution of ozone from Asian wild fires using satellite and aircraft measurements during the ARCTAS campaign

Cited by 21 publications

References 103 publications

Assessment of the Contribution of Wildfires to Ozone Concentrations in the Central US-Mexico Border Region

Assessment of the Contribution of Wildfires to Ozone Concentrations in the Central US-Mexico Border Region

ACE-FTS observations of pyrogenic trace species in boreal biomass burning plumes during BORTAS

Hindcast experiments of tropospheric composition during the summer 2010 fires over western Russia

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