Optical properties of biomass burning aerosol during the 2021 Oregon fire season: comparison between wild and prescribed fires

Marsavin, Andrey; Gageldonk, Ralph van; Bernays, Noah; May, Nathaniel W.; Jaffe, Daniel A.; Fry, Juliane L.

doi:10.1039/d2ea00118g

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 127 publications

(219 reference statements)

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“…The decrease in BrC absorption is most probably connected to the photobleaching of BrC. The net decrease in BrC absorption with aging due to photobleaching is also consistent with other studies [ 15 , 17 , 18 , 38 , 39 ]. The lowest fraction of light absorbed by BrC was found between 17 and 19 November, with less than a 20% share ( Figure 2 f).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

“…CA emitted from wildfires are mostly organic [ 7 , 15 ]. Like other BB aerosols, fresh wildfire emissions contain a high fraction of BrC [ 15 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…CA emitted from wildfires are mostly organic [ 7 , 15 ]. Like other BB aerosols, fresh wildfire emissions contain a high fraction of BrC [ 15 ]. Dark aging can enhance BrC absorption [ 15 ], while BrC absorption is decreased with aging during daylight owing to the photobleaching of chromophores [ 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Highly Time-Resolved Apportionment of Carbonaceous Aerosols from Wildfire Using the TC–BC Method: Camp Fire 2018 Case Study

Ivančič,

Rigler,

Alföldy

et al. 2023

Toxics

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The Camp Fire was one of California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfires, and its widespread smoke threatened human health over a large area in Northern California in November 2018. To analyze the Camp Fire influence on air quality on a 200 km distant site in Berkeley, highly time-resolved total carbon (TC), black carbon (BC), and organic carbon (OC) were measured using the Carbonaceous Aerosol Speciation System (CASS, Aerosol Magee Scientific), comprising two instruments, a Total Carbon Analyzer TCA08 in tandem with an Aethalometer AE33. During the period when the air quality was affected by wildfire smoke, the BC concentrations increased four times above the typical air pollution level presented in Berkeley before and after the event, and the OC increased approximately ten times. High-time-resolution measurements allow us to study the aging of OC and investigate how the characteristics of carbonaceous aerosols evolve over the course of the fire event. A higher fraction of secondary carbonaceous aerosols was observed in the later phase of the fire. At the same time, the amount of light-absorbing organic aerosol (brown carbon) declined with time.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

“…CA emitted from wildfires are mostly organic [ 7 , 15 ]. Like other BB aerosols, fresh wildfire emissions contain a high fraction of BrC [ 15 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Highly Time-Resolved Apportionment of Carbonaceous Aerosols from Wildfire Using the TC–BC Method: Camp Fire 2018 Case Study

Ivančič,

Rigler,

Alföldy

et al. 2023

Toxics

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“…Furthermore, most scientific evidence of the net effects of prescribed burning in the West derive from a limited number of case studies (Jaffe et al., 2020; US EPA, 2021; Vaillant et al., 2009). Prescribed fires, however, have been shown to produce less smoke and higher combustion efficiency on average compared to wildfires (Jaffe et al., 2020; Marsavin et al., 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prescribed Burns as a Tool to Mitigate Future Wildfire Smoke Exposure: Lessons for States and Rural Environmental Justice Communities

et al. 2023

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Smoke from wildfires presents one of the greatest threats to air quality, public health, and ecosystems in the United States, especially in the West. Here we quantify the efficacy of prescribed burning as an intervention for mitigating smoke exposure downwind of wildfires across the West during the 2018 and 2020 fire seasons. Using the adjoint of the GEOS‐Chem chemical transport model, we calculate the sensitivities of population‐weighted smoke concentrations in receptor regions, including states and rural environmental justice communities, to fire emissions upwind of the receptors. We find that the population‐weighted smoke exposure across the West during the September 2020 fires was 44 μg/m3 but would have been 20%–30% greater had these wildfires occurred in October or November. We further simulate a set of prescribed burn scenarios and find that controlled burning interventions in northern California and the Pacific Northwest could have reduced the population‐weighted smoke exposure across the western United States by 21 μg/m3 in September 2020, while doing so in all other states would have reduced smoke exposure by only 1.5 μg/m3. Satellite records of large, prescribed burns (>1,000 acres, or 4 km2) reveal that northern California and western Oregon conducted only seven such prescribed fires over a 6‐year period (2015–2020), even though these regions have a disproportionate impact on smoke exposure for rural environmental justice communities and population centers across the West. Our analysis suggests that prioritizing northern California and the Pacific Northwest for prescribed burns might mitigate future smoke exposure.

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Optical Properties of Biomass Burning Aerosols from Simulated Wildfires and Prescribed Fires with Representative Fuel Beds from the Southeast United States

McQueen,

Poland,

Glenn

et al. 2024

ACS EST Air

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We report measurements of the absorption Ångström exponent (AAE) and single scattering albedo (SSA) of biomass burning aerosol from the combustion of fuel beds representing three eco-regions of the Southeast U.S. (Piedmont, Coastal Plain, and Blue Ridge Mountains) with moisture content representative of wildfires and prescribed fires. We find a strong correlation between the AAE and SSA for both simulated wildfires (low fuel moisture) and prescribed fires (higher fuel moisture). For wildfires, the AAE and SSA are strongly dependent on the eco-region of the fuel bed and span a much wider range (AAE = 1.3–4.2, SSA = 0.75–0.97) than they do for prescribed fires (AAE = 2.4–3.1, SSA = 0.88–0.96). The AAE and SSA are also found to be correlated with the fraction of total carbon that is elemental carbon (f EC) for both wildfires and prescribed fires, but the range of f EC observed (0.02–0.14) from the fuel beds is much smaller than that reported previously from laboratory studies using individual fuels. The observations from the present study suggest that fuel-bed composition and moisture content are significant factors in determining the relative amount of organic material in biomass burning aerosols and, consequentially, their optical properties.

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Optical properties of biomass burning aerosol during the 2021 Oregon fire season: comparison between wild and prescribed fires

Abstract: The Mt. Bachelor Observatory (MBO, 2.76 km a.s.l.) was frequently impacted by biomass burning (BB) smoke in 2021, an extreme forest fire year in the state of Oregon. We used...

Cited by 3 publications

References 127 publications

Highly Time-Resolved Apportionment of Carbonaceous Aerosols from Wildfire Using the TC–BC Method: Camp Fire 2018 Case Study

Highly Time-Resolved Apportionment of Carbonaceous Aerosols from Wildfire Using the TC–BC Method: Camp Fire 2018 Case Study

Prescribed Burns as a Tool to Mitigate Future Wildfire Smoke Exposure: Lessons for States and Rural Environmental Justice Communities

Optical Properties of Biomass Burning Aerosols from Simulated Wildfires and Prescribed Fires with Representative Fuel Beds from the Southeast United States

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