Connecting smoke plumes to sources using Hazard Mapping System (HMS) smoke and fire location data over North America

Brey, Steven J.; Ruminski, M.; Atwood, Samuel A.; Fischer, Emily V.

doi:10.5194/acp-2017-245

Cited by 25 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…As well, in the springtime, smoke plumes from Central America can be transported to the SE region, as reported in the studies of Park et al (2003) and Wang et al ( , 2009. Brey, Ruminski, et al (2018) combined the HMS product and HYSPLIT forward trajectory data to connect summertime (June-September) smoke plumes to their sources (see their Figure 13). They found that in the NW, SW, and SE, smoke hours were contributed mainly by fires within these regions, although smoke was exchanged to a significant extent among western regions.…”

Section: 1029/2019jd031372mentioning

confidence: 87%

“…(2019) and Brey, Ruminski, et al (2018), we flag data as "smoky" when the AERONET sites are overlapped by an HMS smoke polygon. There are several limitations to using the HMS product to determine when smoke may be present in surface observations, as noted in O' Dell et al (2019).…”

Section: The Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke Product (Hms)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As atmospheric aerosols are generally impacted by multiple sources (e.g., dust, sea salt and anthropogenic emissions), isolating the contribution of individual sources to observed aerosol properties is challenging. Brey, Ruminski, et al (2018) andO'Dell et al (2019) demonstrate the usefulness of a satellite analysis product, the Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke Product (HMS), to identify the locations of smoke plumes and determine smoke impacted days and regions. We summarize the relevant characteristics of the HMS smoke product here.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, another limitation is that the HMS product does not provide any information on the vertical distribution of smoke, just the horizontal extent of the plume. In this study, we extend the methods of Brey, Ruminski, et al (2018) andO'Dell et al (2019) to locate smoke plumes and then isolate smoke properties using the differences in aerosol properties between days with and without smoke impacts over a full decade of observations. We estimate smoke properties (chemical composition and optical properties) using columnar and surface in situ measurements, and we evaluate how these properties vary across the western and SE United States-regions heavily impacted by fires, and for which we hypothesize that smoke properties may differ due to differences in fuels, fire type, and meteorology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Decadal Climatology of Chemical, Physical, and Optical Properties of Ambient Smoke in the Western and Southeastern United States

et al. 2020

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Biomass burning is a major source of summertime fine particulate matter in the United States, degrading air quality and affecting human health and climate. Fuels, burn conditions, and fire types vary across the United States, which may impact smoke composition and optical properties. We use the Hazard Mapping System to track smoke plumes for 10 years from 2008 to 2017, focusing on three U.S. regions: Southeast, Pacific West, and Southwest. Combining this geospatial data set with AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) columnar data, and Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) network in situ observations, we define "smoke-influenced days" and derive the properties of smoke aerosol for April through September, encompassing the main fire seasons across the United States. We find in the IMPROVE surface measurement that the elemental carbon fraction of smoke in the Southeast is statistically different from and lower than that in the west, consistent with more-smoldering prescribed fires in the southeast. We find in the AERONET columnar observations that the mean single scattering albedo of smoke (at 675 nm) is lower in the two western regions (~0.94) compared to the southeast (~0.96), consistent with the differences in composition and fire types, which implies that the compositional differences at the surface may be representative of the column. Higher relative humidity in the southeast and less dust associated with smoke also appear to contribute to the higher smoke single scattering albedo relative to the west. Our results show that smoke properties vary regionally, with implications for models, data assimilation, and remote-sensing.

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Section: 1029/2019jd031372mentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: The Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke Product (Hms)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Decadal Climatology of Chemical, Physical, and Optical Properties of Ambient Smoke in the Western and Southeastern United States

et al. 2020

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“…The HMS smoke product is produced using multiple NASA and NOAA satellite products (Rolph et al, 2009). Smoke in the atmospheric column is detected using both visible and infrared imagery and is fully described in Brey et al (2017). The extent of smoke plumes within the HMS dataset represents a conservative estimate, and no information is provided on the vertical extent or vertical placement of the plumes.…”

Section: Smoke Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in ozone and precursors during two aged wildfire smoke events in the Colorado Front Range in summer 2015

et al. 2017

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Abstract. The relative importance of wildfire smoke for air quality over the western US is expected to increase as the climate warms and anthropogenic emissions decline. We report on in situ measurements of ozone (O 3 ), a suite of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and reactive oxidized nitrogen species collected during summer 2015 at the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO) in Erie, CO. Aged wildfire smoke impacted BAO during two distinct time periods during summer 2015: 6-10 July and 16-30 August. The smoke was transported from the Pacific Northwest and Canada across much of the continental US. Carbon monoxide and particulate matter increased during the smoke-impacted periods, along with peroxyacyl nitrates and several VOCs that have atmospheric lifetimes longer than the transport timescale of the smoke. During the August smokeimpacted period, nitrogen dioxide was also elevated during the morning and evening compared to the smoke-free periods. There were nine empirically defined high-O 3 days during our study period at BAO, and two of these days were smoke impacted. We examined the relationship between O 3 and temperature at BAO and found that for a given temperature, O 3 mixing ratios were greater (∼ 10 ppbv) during the smoke-impacted periods. Enhancements in O 3 during the August smoke-impacted period were also observed at two long-term monitoring sites in Colorado: Rocky Mountain National Park and the Arapahoe National Wildlife Refuge near Walden, CO. Our data provide a new case study of how aged wildfire smoke can influence atmospheric composition at an urban site, and how smoke can contribute to increased O 3 abundances across an urban-rural gradient.

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The North American tree‐ring fire‐scar network

et al. 2022

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Fire regimes in North American forests are diverse and modern fire records are often too short to capture important patterns, trends, feedbacks, and drivers of variability. Tree‐ring fire scars provide valuable perspectives on fire regimes, including centuries‐long records of fire year, season, frequency, severity, and size. Here, we introduce the newly compiled North American tree‐ring fire‐scar network (NAFSN), which contains 2562 sites, >37,000 fire‐scarred trees, and covers large parts of North America. We investigate the NAFSN in terms of geography, sample depth, vegetation, topography, climate, and human land use. Fire scars are found in most ecoregions, from boreal forests in northern Alaska and Canada to subtropical forests in southern Florida and Mexico. The network includes 91 tree species, but is dominated by gymnosperms in the genus Pinus. Fire scars are found from sea level to >4000‐m elevation and across a range of topographic settings that vary by ecoregion. Multiple regions are densely sampled (e.g., >1000 fire‐scarred trees), enabling new spatial analyses such as reconstructions of area burned. To demonstrate the potential of the network, we compared the climate space of the NAFSN to those of modern fires and forests; the NAFSN spans a climate space largely representative of the forested areas in North America, with notable gaps in warmer tropical climates. Modern fires are burning in similar climate spaces as historical fires, but disproportionately in warmer regions compared to the historical record, possibly related to under‐sampling of warm subtropical forests or supporting observations of changing fire regimes. The historical influence of Indigenous and non‐Indigenous human land use on fire regimes varies in space and time. A 20th century fire deficit associated with human activities is evident in many regions, yet fire regimes characterized by frequent surface fires are still active in some areas (e.g., Mexico and the southeastern United States). These analyses provide a foundation and framework for future studies using the hundreds of thousands of annually‐ to sub‐annually‐resolved tree‐ring records of fire spanning centuries, which will further advance our understanding of the interactions among fire, climate, topography, vegetation, and humans across North America.

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Connecting smoke plumes to sources using Hazard Mapping System (HMS) smoke and fire location data over North America

Cited by 25 publications

References 26 publications

A Decadal Climatology of Chemical, Physical, and Optical Properties of Ambient Smoke in the Western and Southeastern United States

A Decadal Climatology of Chemical, Physical, and Optical Properties of Ambient Smoke in the Western and Southeastern United States

Changes in ozone and precursors during two aged wildfire smoke events in the Colorado Front Range in summer 2015

The North American tree‐ring fire‐scar network

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