Biomass burning at Cape Grim: exploring photochemistry using multi-scale modelling

Lawson, Sarah; Cope, Martin; Lee, Sunhee; Galbally, Ian E.; Ristovski, Zoran; Keywood, Melita

doi:10.5194/acp-17-11707-2017

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 66 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The C-CTM is a modelling framework which simulates the emissions, transport and wet and dry deposition of chemical species in the atmosphere. Previously, the C-CTM has successfully been used in several air quality applications, including investigating smoke from biomass burning [33], shipping emissions [34] and biogenic emissions [35,36].…”

Section: Regional Air Quality Modelling Using C-ctmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Air Quality in a Coastal City: Wollongong during the MUMBA Campaign

et al. 2018

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present findings from the Measurements of Urban, Marine and Biogenic Air (MUMBA) campaign, which took place in the coastal city of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia. We focus on a few key air quality indicators, along with a comparison to regional scale chemical transport model predictions at a spatial resolution of 1 km by 1 km. We find that the CSIRO chemical transport model provides accurate simulations of ozone concentrations at most times, but underestimates the ozone enhancements that occur during extreme temperature events. The model also meets previously published performance standards for fine particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5), and the larger aerosol fraction (PM10). We explore the observed composition of the atmosphere within this urban air-shed during the MUMBA campaign and discuss the different influences on air quality in the city. Our findings suggest that further improvements to our ability to simulate air quality in this coastal city can be made through more accurate anthropogenic and biogenic emissions inventories and better understanding of the impact of extreme temperatures on air quality. The challenges in modelling air quality within the urban air-shed of Wollongong, including difficulties in accurate simulation of the local meteorology, are likely to be replicated in many other coastal cities in the Southern Hemisphere.

show abstract

Section: Regional Air Quality Modelling Using C-ctmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Air Quality in a Coastal City: Wollongong during the MUMBA Campaign

et al. 2018

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Given the complexity and variability in biomass burning scenarios and the use of emission factors (EFs, in units of kilograms of VOC emitted per kilogram fuel burnt) to inform air quality models, this can lead to issues in effectively constraining emissions. For example, Lawson et al (2017) reported a strongly non-linear response in simulated ozone (O 3 ) when varying biomass burning (BB) EFs, showing the resulting sensitivity from chemical transport models (CTMs). This sparseness of measurements leads to the use of North American EFs (such as those from Burling et al, 2011 to inform CTMs, simulating emissions of geographically separate biomes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement report: Observations of long-lived volatile organic compounds from the 2019–2020 Australian wildfires during the COALA campaign

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. In 2019–2020, Australia experienced its largest wildfire season on record. Smoke covered hundreds of square kilometers across the southeastern coast and reached the site of the COALA-2020 (Characterizing Organics and Aerosol Loading over Australia) field campaign in New South Wales. Using a subset of nighttime observations made by a proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS), we calculate emission ratios (ERs) and factors (EFs) for 15 volatile organic compounds (VOCs). We restrict our analysis to VOCs with sufficiently long lifetimes to be minimally impacted by oxidation over the ∼ 8 h between when the smoke was emitted and when it arrived at the field site. We use oxidized VOC to VOC ratios to assess the total amount of radical oxidation: maleic anhydride / furan to assess OH oxidation, and (cis-2-butenediol + furanone) / furan to assess NO3 oxidation. We examine time series of O3 and NO2 given their closely linked chemistry with wildfire plumes and observe their trends during the smoke event. Then we compare ERs calculated from the freshest portion of the plume to ERs calculated using the entire nighttime period. Finding good agreement between the two, we are able to extend our analysis to VOCs measured in more chemically aged portions of the plume. Our analysis provides ERs and EFs for six compounds not previously reported for temperate forests in Australia: acrolein (a compound with significant health impacts), methyl propanoate, methyl methacrylate, maleic anhydride, benzaldehyde, and creosol. We compare our results with two studies in similar Australian biomes, and two studies focused on US temperate forests. We find over half of our EFs are within a factor of 2.5 relative to those presented in Australian biome studies, with nearly all within a factor of 5, indicating reasonable agreement. For US-focused studies, we find similar results with over half our EFs within a factor of 2.5, and nearly all within a factor of 5, again indicating reasonably good agreement. This suggests that comprehensive field measurements of biomass burning VOC emissions in other regions may be applicable to Australian temperate forests. Finally, we quantify the magnitude attributable to the primary compounds contributing to OH reactivity from this plume, finding results comparable to several US-based wildfire and laboratory studies.

show abstract

“…While smoke has the potential to significantly influence urban O 3 mixing ratios, actual impacts are difficult to determine and highly variable O 3 impacts have been observed. ,, Simulating these O 3 impacts with photochemical models has proven challenging for several reasons, including incomplete emissions data, high sensitivity to meteorology, and difficulty capturing heterogeneous chemistry . Further, traditional grid models do not simulate smoke plume photochemistry well, especially as it relates to downwind O 3 . ,,,− While Lagrangian parcel models have had some success, more work is needed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between Particulate Matter, Ozone, and Nitrogen Oxides during Urban Smoke Events in the Western US

Buysse

Kaulfus

Nair

et al. 2019

Environ. Sci. Technol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Urban ozone (O 3 ) pollution is influenced by the transport of wildfire smoke but observed impacts are highly variable. We investigate O 3 impacts from smoke in 18 western US cities during July−September, 2013− 2017, with ground-based monitoring data from air quality system sites, using satellite-based hazard mapping system (HMS) fire and smoke product to identify overhead smoke. We present four key findings. First, O 3 and PM 2.5 (particulate matter <2.5 μm in diameter) are elevated at nearly all sites on days influenced by smoke, with the greatest mean enhancement occurring during multiday smoke events; nitrogen oxides (NO x ) are not consistently elevated across all sites. Second, PM 2.5 and O 3 exhibit a nonlinear relationship such that O 3 increases with PM 2.5 at low to moderate 24 h PM 2.5 , peaks around 30−50 μg m −3 , and declines at higher PM 2.5 . Third, the rate of increase of morning O 3 is higher and NO/NO 2 ratios are lower on smoke-influenced days, which could result from additional atmospheric oxidants in smoke. Fourth, while the HMS product is a useful tool for identifying smoke, O 3 and PM 2.5 are elevated on days before and after HMS-identified smoke events implying that a significant fraction of smoke events is not detected.

show abstract

Biomass burning at Cape Grim: exploring photochemistry using multi-scale modelling

Cited by 9 publications

References 66 publications

Urban Air Quality in a Coastal City: Wollongong during the MUMBA Campaign

Urban Air Quality in a Coastal City: Wollongong during the MUMBA Campaign

Measurement report: Observations of long-lived volatile organic compounds from the 2019–2020 Australian wildfires during the COALA campaign

Relationships between Particulate Matter, Ozone, and Nitrogen Oxides during Urban Smoke Events in the Western US

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About