Impact of wildfires on the air quality of Mexico City, 1992–1999

Bravo, A Humberto; Sosa, E. Rodolfo; Sanchez, Araceli; Jaimes, P. Mónica; Saavedra, María I.

doi:10.1016/s0269-7491(01)00277-9

Cited by 52 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Much of that transport will happen at night. In any case, it's possible for Yucatan emissions to reach Mexico City, other areas in Mexico, or a large area of the Midwestern and Eastern US as has been documented in detail elsewhere (Lyons et al, 1998;Kreidenweis et al, 2001;Rogers and Bowman, 2001;Bravo et al, 2002;Lee et al, 2006;Massie et al, 2006). Because a large area is impacted by Yucatan BB emissions we next discuss the amount of these emissions as calculated by the NCAR model described above (Table 6).…”

Section: Regional Transport and Estimated Total Production Of Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emissions from biomass burning in the Yucatan

et al. 2009

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Abstract. In March 2006 two instrumented aircraft made the first detailed field measurements of biomass burning (BB) emissions in the Northern Hemisphere tropics as part of the MILAGRO project. The aircraft were the National Center for Atmospheric Research C-130 and a University of Montana/US Forest Service Twin Otter. The initial emissions of up to 49 trace gas or particle species were measured from 20 deforestation and crop residue fires on the Yucatan peninsula. This included two trace gases useful as indicators of BB (HCN and acetonitrile) and several rarely, or never before, measured species: OH, peroxyacetic acid, propanoic acid, hydrogen peroxide, methane sulfonic acid, and sulfuric acid. Crop residue fires emitted more organic acids and ammonia than deforestation fires, but the emissions from the main fire types were otherwise fairly similar. The Yucatan firesCorrespondence to: R. J. Yokelson (bob.yokelson@umontana.edu) emitted unusually high amounts of SO 2 and particle chloride, likely due to a strong marine influence on this peninsula. As smoke from one fire aged, the ratio O 3 / CO increased to ∼15% in <∼1 h similar to the fast net production of O 3 in BB plumes observed earlier in Africa. The rapid change in O 3 occurs at a finer spatial scale than is employed in global models and is also faster than predicted by microscale models. Fast increases in PAN, H 2 O 2 , and two organic acids were also observed. The amount of secondary organic acid is larger than the amount of known precursors. Rapid secondary formation of organic and inorganic aerosol was observed with the ratio PM 2.5 / CO more than doubling in ∼1.4±0.7 h. The OH measurements revealed high initial levels (>1×10 7 molecules/cm 3 ) that were likely caused in part by high initial HONO (∼10% of NO y ). Thus, more research is needed to understand critical post emission processes for the second-largest trace gas source on Earth. It is estimated that ∼44 Tg of biomass burned in the Yucatan in the spring Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.

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Section: Regional Transport and Estimated Total Production Of Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emissions from biomass burning in the Yucatan

et al. 2009

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“…Several previous studies have found that many fires occur in and around the MCMA, particularly in the pine forests on the mountains surrounding the city, both inside and outside the basin (Bravo et al, 2002;. Many of these fires are of human origin and can affect air quality.…”

Section: Aircraft Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An overview of the MILAGRO 2006 Campaign: Mexico City emissions and their transport and transformation

et al. 2010

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Abstract. MILAGRO (Megacity Initiative: Local And Global Research Observations) is an international collaborative project to examine the behavior and the export of atmospheric emissions from a megacity. The Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) -one of the world's largest megacities and North America's most populous city -was selected as the case study to characterize the sources, concentrations, transport, and transformation processes of the gases and fine particles emitted to the MCMA atmosphere and to evaluate the regional and global impacts of these emissions. The findings of this study are relevant to the evolution and impacts of pollution from many other megacities.The measurement phase consisted of a month-long series of carefully coordinated observations of the chemistry and physics of the atmosphere in and near Mexico City duringCorrespondence to: L. T. Molina (ltmolina@mit.edu) March 2006, using a wide range of instruments at ground sites, on aircraft and satellites, and enlisting over 450 scientists from 150 institutions in 30 countries. Three ground supersites were set up to examine the evolution of the primary emitted gases and fine particles. Additional platforms in or near Mexico City included mobile vans containing scientific laboratories and mobile and stationary upward-looking lidars. Seven instrumented research aircraft provided information about the atmosphere over a large region and at various altitudes. Satellite-based instruments peered down into the atmosphere, providing even larger geographical coverage. The overall campaign was complemented by meteorological forecasting and numerical simulations, satellite observations and surface networks. Together, these research observations have provided the most comprehensive characterization of the MCMA's urban and regional atmospheric composition and chemistry that will take years to analyze and evaluate fully.Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. L. T. Molina et al.: Mexico City emissions and their transport and transformationIn this paper we review over 120 papers resulting from the MILAGRO/INTEX-B Campaign that have been published or submitted, as well as relevant papers from the earlier MCMA-2003 Campaign, with the aim of providing a road map for the scientific community interested in understanding the emissions from a megacity such as the MCMA and their impacts on air quality and climate. This paper describes the measurements performed during MILAGRO and the results obtained on MCMA's atmospheric meteorology and dynamics, emissions of gases and fine particles, sources and concentrations of volatile organic compounds, urban and regional photochemistry, ambient particulate matter, aerosol radiative properties, urban plume characterization, and health studies. A summary of key findings from the field study is presented.

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“…An influence of biomass burning was recognized in some of these reports. Bravo et al (2002) analyzed the particulate data for the MC urban area from 1992 to 1999. They observed some large increases in urban PM 10 and total suspended particulate (TSP) during March-May of 1998, which they attributed to greatly increased biomass burning in Mexico at that time (Galindo et al, 2003).…”

Section: Preliminary Assessment Of the Contribution Of Fires To The Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emissions from forest fires near Mexico City

et al. 2007

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Abstract. The emissions of NO x (defined as NO (nitric oxide) + NO 2 (nitrogen dioxide)) and hydrogen cyanide (HCN), per unit amount of fuel burned, from fires in the pine forests that dominate the mountains surrounding Mexico City (MC) are about 2 times higher than normally observed for forest burning. The ammonia (NH 3 ) emissions are about average for forest burning. The upper limit for the mass ratio of NO x to volatile organic compounds (VOC) for these MC-area mountain fires was ∼0.38, which is similar to the NO x /VOC ratio in the MC urban area emissions inventory of 0.34, but much larger than the NO x /VOC ratio for tropical forest fires in Brazil (∼0.068). The nitrogen enrichment in the fire emissions may be due to deposition of nitrogencontaining pollutants in the outflow from the MC urban area. This effect may occur worldwide wherever biomass burning coexists with large urban areas (e.g. the tropics, southeastern US, Los Angeles Basin). The molar emission ratio of HCN to carbon monoxide (CO) for the mountain fires was 0.012±0.007, which is 2-9 times higher than widely used literature values for biomass burning. The ambient molar ratio HCN/CO in the MC-area outflow is about 0.003±0.0003.

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Impact of wildfires on the air quality of Mexico City, 1992–1999

Cited by 52 publications

References 6 publications

Emissions from biomass burning in the Yucatan

Emissions from biomass burning in the Yucatan

An overview of the MILAGRO 2006 Campaign: Mexico City emissions and their transport and transformation

Emissions from forest fires near Mexico City

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