Brown Carbon Emissions from Biomass Burning under Simulated Wildfire and Prescribed-Fire Conditions

Abstract

We investigated the light-absorption properties of brown carbon (BrC) as part of the Georgia Wildland-Fire Simulation Experiment. We constructed fuel beds representative of three ecoregions in the Southeastern U.S. and varied the fuelbed moisture content to simulate either prescribed fires or drought-induced wildfires. Based on decreasing fire radiative energy normalized by fuel-bed mass loading (FRE norm ), the combustion conditions were grouped into wildfire (Wild), prescribed fire (Rx), and wildfire involving duff ignition (Wild-Duff). The emitted BrC ranged from weakly absorbing (WildDuff) to moderately absorbing (Rx and Wild) with the imaginary part of the refractive index (k) values that were well-correlated with FRE norm . We apportioned the BrC into water-soluble (WSBrC) and water-insoluble (WIBrC). Approximately half of the WSBrC molecules detected using electrospray-ionization mass spectrometry were potential chromophores. Nevertheless, k of WSBrC was an order of magnitude smaller than k of WIBrC. Furthermore, k of WIBrC was well-correlated with FRE norm while k of WSBrC was not, suggesting different formation pathways between WIBrC and WSBrC. Overall, the results signify the importance of combustion conditions in determining BrC lightabsorption properties and indicate that variables in wildland fires, such as moisture content and fuel-bed composition, impact BrC light-absorption properties to the extent that they influence combustion conditions.