Influence of Long-Range Transport of Siberian Biomass Burning at the Mt. Bachelor Observatory during the Spring of 2015

Abstract

We looked at a Siberian biomass burning (BB) event on Spring 2015 that was observed at Mt. Bachelor Observatory (MBO; 2.8 km a.s.l) and by satellite instruments (MODIS and CALIPSO), and intercepted by the NOAA WP-3D research aircraft during the Shale Oil and Natural Gas Nexus (SONGNEX) campaign. The Siberian airmass split into two plumes in the eastern Pacific. One plume moved eastward and was sampled directly at MBO. The other moved northeast to Alaska and then down to the U.S. Midwest; this second plume was intercepted by the WP-3D aircraft. We find that the ΔO 3 /ΔCO enhancement ratio at MBO is higher than for the plume intercepted by the aircraft. This is due to the warmer plume observed at MBO which led to thermal decomposition of PAN to NO x . The colder plume observed by the aircraft allowed PAN to be locked up and therefore this led to less ozone production. This is supported by the reactive nitrogen (NO y ) measurements from the aircraft, which show that 64% of the NO y is stored as PAN. We also find that the Δσ sp /ΔCO enhancement ratios at MBO and on the aircraft were much higher than the ratios for similarly aged Siberian fires that were observed previously in the western U.S. We observe that this is because of dust transport in addition to the fire smoke. Ground-based, satellite, and LiDAR data suggest that the Siberian plume was transported at high elevation, and while it was efficiently transported across the Pacific, there was no significant subsidence over North America. Therefore, this long-range transport event did not lead to air quality impacts at the surface in western North America.

OH chemistry of non-methane organic gases (NMOGs) emitted from laboratory and ambient biomass burning smoke: evaluating the influence of furans and oxygenated aromatics on ozone and secondary NMOG formation

“…PTR-ToF-MS measurements of a wild fire plume transported to the US from southern Siberia. The plume was intercepted 21 April 2015 during the SONGNEX field campaign and is described in detail by Baylon et al (2017).…”

“…1) and the continued formation of maleic anhydride in the extrapolated model suggests that this compound could be present in highly aged plumes. During the NOAA Shale Oil and Natural Gas Nexus (SONGNEX https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/csd/ projects/songnex/, last access: 4 January 2018) field campaign, the NOAA WP-3D aircraft intercepted a large biomass burning plume in the free troposphere above MT, US, on 21 April 2015 (Baylon et al, 2017). The plume had been transported at least 4 d from wildfires in Siberia and affected large portions of the western US.…”

Intensive aerosol properties of boreal and regional biomass burning aerosol at Mt. Bachelor Observatory: larger and black carbon (BC)-dominant particles transported from Siberian wildfires

“…These observations were part of the larger Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) experiment (Liao et al, 2021;Xu et al, 2021;Decker et al, 2021;Wiggins et al, 2021;Makar et al, 2021), which included extensive observations at MBO (Farley et al, 2022). Due to its remote location and limited anthropogenic influence, MBO is an ideal site for measurements of wildfire plumes ranging from locally emitted to long-range transport events (Laing et al, 2016;Baylon et al, 2017;Wigder et al, 2013). The atmospheric conditions during this study were typical for a clean background location as the PM 1 concentrations were relatively low (avg.…”

Influence of the Long-Range Transport of Siberian Biomass Burnings on Air Quality in Northeast China in June 2017

“…Moreover, the boreal fire frequency and size are expected to increase as a result of climate warming in high northern latitudes [ 10 ]. The trace gases and aerosols generated from large-scale boreal zone burning can contribute to regional and hemisphere air pollution [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. In the past few decades, the impacts of long-range transported Siberian plumes on air quality in Mongolia, Korea, Japan, and the Pacific Northwest have been intensely investigated [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ].…”