B085-04
Simulating spatio-temporal dynamics of surface PM2.5 emitted from Alaskan wildfires using HYSPLIT

Monday, 14 December 2020: 08:50
Virtual
Dong Chen1, Allison E Baer2, Michael Billmire3, Jiaying He2 and Tatiana V Loboda2, (1)University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, United States, (2)University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States, (3)Michigan Technological University, Research Institute, Houghton, MI, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:

Wildfires are the dominant disturbance agent in boreal forests and tundra in Alaska. In addition to influencing the global carbon cycle and energy budget, wildfires also affect public health by emitting large quantities of various pollutants, among which fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is considered a primary pollutant that has been linked to a series of respiratory and cardiovascular outcomes. Even though it is generally known that during the fire season, severe biomass burning usually leads to high PM2.5 concentrations in cities such as Fairbanks where PM2.5 has been consistently recorded through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s monitoring stations, vast remote areas of Alaska are not covered by station-based monitoring of air quality and, thus, little is known about the spatio-temporal dynamics of the fire-driven surface PM2.5 concentrations. Our current project is focused on developing wall-to-wall assessments of PM2.5 concentrations using a modeling chain that includes satellite observations of fire activity, the Wildland Fire Emissions Information System (WFEIS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s HYSPLIT model. Here we present the simulated concentrations of PM2.5 emitted from wildfires in Alaska throughout the fire seasons in 2001-2015. Accuracy assessment against the available EPA station data and an intercomparison with the MODIS-based aerosol optical depth (AOD) data show that our results are able to reproduce the geospatial patterns of smoke distribution compared to satellite and surface-based observations as well as the magnitude of PM2.5 concentrations. Our analysis summarizing all wildfires that were modeled shows that wildfires in Alaska, especially those during the years when fire activities were intensive, are a major contributor of surface PM2.5 concentrations across most of the state of Alaska. Central Alaska, including Fairbanks, is shown to be a hot spot suffering prolonged high-level fire-emitted PM2.5 in severe fire years.

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