Constraining the Emission of Particulate Matter From Indonesian Peatland Burning Using Continuous Observation Data

Abstract

Tropical peatland, which dominantly distributes in Indonesia and Malaysia, has experienced recurring fires in the last few decades. Constraining the enhancement ratios and emission factors of gas and particulate matter emitted by the wildfires is necessary to evaluate their environmental and climatic impacts. We analyzed continuous observation data at Pekanbaru in Indonesia and Muar in Malaysia to investigate the emissions of gas and particulate matter. The enhancement ratios of particulate matter to carbon monoxide (PM10/CO) of wildfires in Riau province in June 2013 and February–March 2014 were analyzed. The PM10/CO ratios of peatland burning plumes ranged from 77 to 97 μg mg−1 for the event in June 2013, whereas the corresponding value was 127 μg mg−1 in February–March 2014. These enhancement ratios were translated to the emission factors of particulate matter using previous data on the emission factors of CO, assuming that secondary formation was ignorable. The estimated emission factors for PM10 were 13 ± 2 g kg−1 (2013) and 19 ± 2 g kg−1 (2014). These values are comparable to those reported by recent field observations in Indonesia and Malaysia (17.3 ± 6.0 to 34.4 ± 18.8 g kg−1). The estimated emission factors from both the present study and recent field work are consistently higher than that used in the current emission inventory, which suggests that it should be updated. A caveat for this analysis is possible influence of secondary formation, which will still be needed to be investigated in future studies.

Gaseous, PM<sub>2.5</sub> Mass, and Speciated Emission Factors from Laboratory Chamber Peat Combustion

“…Most studies report EFPM 2.5 with a few exceptions for EFPM 10 (Iinuma et al, 2007;Kuwata et al, 2018) and EFPM 1 (May et al, 2014). As most of the PM10 is in the PM2.5 fraction for biomass combustion, particle size fractions have a minor effect on PM EFs (Geron and Hays, 2013;Hu et al, 2018).…”

Revised estimate of particulate emissions from Indonesian peat fires in 2015

“…In one study measuring emissions from peat fires in Central Kalimantan during 7 days in 2015, PM2.5 EFs was found to vary between 6 and 30 g kg -1 (Jayarathne et al, 2018). EFs can also vary between years, Kuwata et al (2018) used measurements from Indonesian peat fires to estimate EFs of PM10 of 13±2 g kg -1 in 2013 and 19±2 g kg -1 in 2014.…”

The Madden‐Julian Oscillation Modulates the Air Quality in the Maritime Continent

“…The variations in PM 10 , CO, and ozone during February, March, and April (FMA) were similar to those during NDJ. Although wildfires occasionally occur in the central part of Sumatra and part of Peninsular Malaysia during FMA, their impact on the air quality in Malaysia was likely minimal due to the predominant northeasterly winds (Figure S11) (Kuwata et al, 2018).…”