Investigating the Long-Range Transport of Aerosol Plumes Following the Amazon Fires (August 2019): A Multi-Instrumental Approach from Ground-Based and Satellite Observations

Benchérif, Hassan; Bègue, Nelson; Pinheiro, Damaris Kirsch; Preez, David Jean du; Cadet, Jean-Maurice; Silva, Jonatan João da; Shikwambana, Lerato; Landulfo, Eduardo; Vescovini, Thomas; Labuschagne, Casper; Silva, Jonatan João; Anabor, Vagner; Coheur, Pierre‐François; Mbatha, Nkanyiso; Hadji‐Lazaro, Juliette; Sivakumar, Venkataraman; Clerbaux, Cathy

doi:10.3390/rs12223846

Cited by 18 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Along with previous studies 34,43 , our work highlights the role of the Pantanal res in disrupting air quality across the country, as already recognized for res in the Amazon and Cerrado [44][45][46] . In particular, the smoke loading over the Pantanal during the P20F was higher than over Amazonia 34 .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Compound dry-hot-fire events in South America: an unapparent, long-range and deadly ripple effect

Santos,

Oliveira,

Duarte

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Under current global warming, South America (SA) has been experiencing severe compound drought-heatwave (CDHW) conditions, which, in turn, exacerbate fire risk. A recent showcase is the unprecedented Pantanal 2020 fire season (P20F), when one-third of the biome was burned, with reported local impacts on the ecosystem, public health, and economy. Nevertheless, the extent to which this event led to long-range ripple effects remains unknown. Here, we explored a cascade chain of hazards along the continent associated with the CDHW-fires from P20F, integrating observational, satellite-based, and reanalysis data, models, and death records. We showed that CDHW-fire-related smoke transport episodes triggered high PM2.5 levels in the SA's most populated area, surpassing the World Health Organization’s guidelines by up to 600%. Such smoke-induced air pollution conditions coincided with widespread heatwaves in the affected remote areas, amplifying health risks. The mortality burden attributable to this multi-hazard short-term (14 days) exposure was estimated to be 2,150 premature deaths (21% increase above expected levels). Our findings highlight that the impacts of CDHW-fire events in SA are beyond the local level, implying growing challenges for risk management and public health and the need for governance based on telecoupled flows, linking different systems over multiple scales.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Compound dry-hot-fire events in South America: an unapparent, long-range and deadly ripple effect

Santos,

Oliveira,

Duarte

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…Total column and volume mixing ratio profiles of trace gases such as CO and ozone were retrieved with high accuracy and precision from ground-based Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometers [48,49]. In the present study, we use FTIR ozone and CO observations taken at Lauder (New Zealand).…”

Section: Ftirmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The measurements are taken on clear-sky days, throughout the day, using a Bruker high-resolution spectrometer over a wide spectral range (around 600-4500 cm −1 ). A detailed description of the ozone and CO retrieval algorithms is given by Vigouroux et al [48] and Morgenstern et al [51]; they are briefly summarized here. The CO and ozone total column amounts and volume mixing ratio profiles are retrieved using the spectral least-squares fitting (SFIT) algorithm [52,53].…”

Section: Ftirmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The level 1.5 of AOD data with version 3 refers now to near real-time automatic cloud screening and automatic instrument anomaly quality controls. We also note that the new level 1.5 (version 3) AOD data have been validated and used in recent works [48,77,78]. The AOD data used in the present study were downloaded from the AERONET web site: http://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov (accessed on 2 August 2021).…”

Section: Ozone Radiosondesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Transport and Variability of Tropospheric Ozone over Oceania and Southern Pacific during the 2019–20 Australian Bushfires

et al. 2021

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The present study contributes to the scientific effort for a better understanding of the potential of the Australian biomass burning events to influence tropospheric trace gas abundances at the regional scale. In order to exclude the influence of the long-range transport of ozone precursors from biomass burning plumes originating from Southern America and Africa, the analysis of the Australian smoke plume has been driven over the period December 2019 to January 2020. This study uses satellite (IASI, MLS, MODIS, CALIOP) and ground-based (sun-photometer, FTIR, ozone radiosondes) observations. The highest values of aerosol optical depth (AOD) and carbon monoxide total columns are observed over Southern and Central Australia. Transport is responsible for the spatial and temporal distributions of aerosols and carbon monoxide over Australia, and also the transport of the smoke plume outside the continent. The dispersion of the tropospheric smoke plume over Oceania and Southern Pacific extends from tropical to extratropical latitudes. Ozone radiosonde measurements performed at Samoa (14.4°S, 170.6°W) and Lauder (45.0°S, 169.4°E) indicate an increase in mid-tropospheric ozone (6–9 km) (from 10% to 43%) linked to the Australian biomass burning plume. This increase in mid-tropospheric ozone induced by the transport of the smoke plume was found to be consistent with MLS observations over the tropical and extratropical latitudes. The smoke plume over the Southern Pacific was organized as a stretchable anticyclonic rolling which impacted the ozone variability in the tropical and subtropical upper-troposphere over Oceania. This is corroborated by the ozone profile measurements at Samoa which exhibit an enhanced ozone layer (29%) in the upper-troposphere. Our results suggest that the transport of Australian biomass burning plumes have significantly impacted the vertical distribution of ozone in the mid-troposphere southern tropical to extratropical latitudes during the 2019–20 extreme Australian bushfires.

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“…Air pollution from fires is detrimental to public health. Smoke particulate matter from biomass burning in the Amazon Basin can travel great distances, affecting air quality across several countries in South America (Bourgeois et al 2015, Bencherif et al 2020. Many studies examining the impact of smoke on public health have tended to focus on one season or have relied on hospital admission data (Butt et al 2020, 2021, de Souza et al 2020, Nawaz and Henze 2020, Ye et al 2021.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health impacts of smoke exposure in South America: increased risk for populations in the Amazonian Indigenous territories

Bonilla

Mickley

Raheja

et al. 2023

Environ. Res.: Health

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Smoke particulate matter emitted by fires in the Amazon Basin poses a threat to human health. Past research on this threat has mainly focused on the health impacts on countries as a whole or has relied on hospital admission data to quantify the health response. Such analyses do not capture the impact on people living in Indigenous territories close to the fires and who often lack access to medical care and may not show up at hospitals. Here we quantify the premature mortality due to smoke exposure of people living in Indigenous territories across the Amazon Basin. We use the atmospheric chemistry transport model GEOS-Chem to simulate PM2.5 from fires and other sources, and we apply a recently updated concentration dose-response function. We estimate that smoke from fires in South America accounted for ∼12 000 premature deaths each year from 2014–2019 across the continent, with about ∼230 of these deaths occurring in Indigenous lands. Put another way, smoke exposure accounts for 2 premature deaths per 100 000 people per year across South America, but 4 premature deaths per 100 000 people in the Indigenous territories. Bolivia and Brazil represent hotspots of smoke exposure and deaths in Indigenous territories in these countries are 9 and 12 per 100 000 people, respectively. Our analysis shows that smoke PM2.5 from fires has a detrimental effect on human health across South America, with a disproportionate impact on people living in Indigenous territories.

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Investigating the Long-Range Transport of Aerosol Plumes Following the Amazon Fires (August 2019): A Multi-Instrumental Approach from Ground-Based and Satellite Observations

Cited by 18 publications

References 49 publications

Compound dry-hot-fire events in South America: an unapparent, long-range and deadly ripple effect

Compound dry-hot-fire events in South America: an unapparent, long-range and deadly ripple effect

Transport and Variability of Tropospheric Ozone over Oceania and Southern Pacific during the 2019–20 Australian Bushfires

Health impacts of smoke exposure in South America: increased risk for populations in the Amazonian Indigenous territories

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