A232-05
High-Resolution Satellite Observations of Fire Radiative Power Reveal Link Between Fire Behavior and Aerosol and Gas Emissions

Wednesday, 16 December 2020: 05:46
Virtual
Elizabeth Brooke Wiggins1, Amber Jeanine Soja2, Emily Marie Gargulinski3, Hannah S Halliday4, John B Nowak1, Joshua P DiGangi1, Glenn S Diskin5, Joseph M Katich6, Joshua Peter Schwarz7, Claire E Robinson8, Edward Winstead8 and Richard Moore1, (1)NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, United States, (2)National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, VA, United States, (3)Universities Space Research Association, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, United States, (4)US Environmental Protection Agency Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC, United States, (5)NASA Langley Research Ctr, Hampton, VA, United States, (6)NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Boulder, CO, United States, (7)NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL), Boulder, CO, United States, (8)Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Hampton, VA, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
The impact of wildfire smoke on air quality and atmospheric chemistry depends on the composition and magnitude of emissions and their downwind evolution. However, the processes relevant to this impact are not entirely understood. In a step towards detangling initial emissions from subsequent transformations, we present a new method for evaluating emissions inventories and dilution rates by coupling high time resolution satellite observations of fire radiative power (FRP) with in situ observations of smoke plume aerosol and gas species. We discuss the analysis of 13 fire plumes that were intensively characterized during the recent Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) field campaign. Our results show that FRP is highly correlated with conserved smoke species (CO2, CO, and black carbon aerosol), and thus the geostationary satellite observations provide high-resolution emissions context. This method is can be used to untangle the effect of changing fire behavior versus the influence of dilution and atmospheric processing on the down-wind evolution of measured smoke properties. The application of the high-resolution FRP observations to daily fire emissions estimates holds promise for significantly improving their accuracy and resolution.
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