Pollution influences on atmospheric composition and chemistry at high northern latitudes: Boreal and California forest fire emissions

Singh, H. B.; Anderson, B. E.; Brune, William H.; Cai, Chenxia; Cohen, R. C.; Crawford, J. H.; Cubison, M. J.; Czech, E.; Emmons, L. K.; Fuelberg, Henry E.; Huey, G.; Jacob, Daniel J.; Jimenez, José L.; Kaduwela, A. P.; Kondo, Yutaka; Mao, J.; Olson, J. R.; Sachse, G. W.; Vay, S. A.; Weinheimer, A. J.; Wennberg, P. O.; Wisthaler, Armin

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2010.08.026

Cited by 137 publications

(138 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Chemistry between increased NOx from the ORV and local MA sources in the presence of VOC-laden smoke led to abundant ozone production in the MA, which was supported by co-located smoke tracers and CMAQ model to observation differences. This further emphasizes the complexity and importance of urban interactions with transported smoke within a regime of lower regional O 3 precursor levels and tighter O 3 standards, particularly because wildfires do not generally produce high concentrations of O 3 unless mixed with urban emissions (Singh et al, 2010;Singh et al, 2012). This case shows that the drastic NOx reduction across the ORV may not be enough in future wildfire events and that future events may have significant policy and compliance implications.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Observations and impacts of transported Canadian wildfire smoke on ozone and aerosol air quality in the Maryland region on June 9–12, 2015

Dreessen¹,

Sullivan

Delgado

2016

Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association

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Canadian wildfire smoke impacted air quality across the northern Mid-Atlantic (MA) of the United States during June 9-12, 2015. A multiday exceedance of the new 2015 70-ppb National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone (O 3 ) followed, resulting in Maryland being incompliant with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) revised 2015 O 3 NAAQS. Surface in situ, balloon-borne, and remote sensing observations monitored the impact of the wildfire smoke at Maryland air quality monitoring sites. At peak smoke concentrations in Maryland, wildfire-attributable volatile organic compounds (VOCs) more than doubled, while non-NOx oxides of nitrogen (NOz) tripled, suggesting long range transport of NOx within the smoke plume. Peak daily average PM 2.5 was 32.5 µg m −3 with large fractions coming from black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC), with a synonymous increase in carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations. Measurements indicate that smoke tracers at the surface were spatially and temporally correlated with maximum 8-hr O 3 concentrations in the MA, all which peaked on June 11. Despite initial smoke arrival late on June 9, 2015, O 3 production was inhibited due to ultraviolet (UV) light attenuation, lower temperatures, and nonoptimal surface layer composition. Comparison of Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model surface O 3 forecasts to observations suggests 14 ppb additional O 3 due to smoke influences in northern Maryland. Despite polluted conditions, observations of a nocturnal low-level jet (NLLJ) and Chesapeake Bay Breeze (BB) were associated with decreases in O 3 in this case. While infrequent in the MA, wildfire smoke may be an increasing fractional contribution to high-O 3 days, particularly in light of increased wildfire frequency in a changing climate, lower regional emissions, and tighter air quality standards.Implications: The presented event demonstrates how a single wildfire event associated with an ozone exceedance of the NAAQS can prevent the Baltimore region from complying with lower ozone standards. This relatively new problem in Maryland is due to regional reductions in NOx emissions that led to record low numbers of ozone NAAQS violations in the last 3 years. This case demonstrates the need for adequate means to quantify and justify ozone impacts from wildfires, which can only be done through the use of observationally based models. The data presented may also improve future air quality forecast models.PAPER HISTORY

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Observations and impacts of transported Canadian wildfire smoke on ozone and aerosol air quality in the Maryland region on June 9–12, 2015

Dreessen¹,

Sullivan

Delgado

2016

Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association

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“…Indeed, aircraft observations collected during POLARCAT-IPY show elevated PAN and CO concentrations in air masses transported from Asian and North American anthropogenic emission regions in summer 2008 (Law et al, 2014, and references therein). Boreal forest fires are also an important source of PAN and, due to their proximity to the Arctic, plumes can be transported to high latitudes during the spring and summer months (Brock et al, 2011;Singh et al, 2010). Whilst little O 3 production appears to occur close to boreal fires (Alvarado et al, 2010;Paris et al, 2010), several recent studies have shown O 3 production downwind from boreal fires in the Arctic during the summer months (Wespes et al, 2012;Parrington et al, 2012;Thomas et al, 2013).…”

Section: Arcticmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tropospheric ozone and its precursors from the urban to the global scale from air quality to short-lived climate forcer

et al. 2015

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Abstract. Ozone holds a certain fascination in atmospheric science. It is ubiquitous in the atmosphere, central to tropospheric oxidation chemistry, yet harmful to human and ecosystem health as well as being an important greenhouse gas. It is not emitted into the atmosphere but is a byproduct of the very oxidation chemistry it largely initiates. Much effort is focused on the reduction of surface levels of ozone owing to its health and vegetation impacts, but recent efforts to achieve reductions in exposure at a country scale have proved difficult to achieve owing to increases in background ozone at the zonal hemispheric scale. There is also a growing realisation that the role of ozone as a short-lived climate pollutant could be important in integrated air quality climate change mitigation. This review examines current understanding of the processes regulating tropospheric ozone at global to local scales from both measurements and models. It takes the view that knowledge across the scales is important for dealing with air quality and climate change in a synergistic manner. The review shows that there remain a number of clear challenges for ozone such as explaining surface trends, incorporating new chemical understanding, ozone-climate coupling, and a better assessment of impacts. There is a clear and present need to treat ozone across the range of scales, a transboundary issue, but with an emphasis on the hemispheric scales. New observational opportunities are offered both by satellites and small sensors that bridge the scales.

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“…High-altitude greatly increases susceptibility to stratospheric influence; for days when observed O 3 exceeds 70 ppb at monitoring sites in the western states of EPA Region 8 during April-June of 2010, Lin et al (2012a) find that median values of stratospheric O 3 in the AM3 model are 10 ppb lower at the lower elevation AQS sites than at high-elevation sites. Episodic wildfires also contribute to high-O 3 events (e.g., Jaffe and Wigder, 2012;McKeen et al, 2002;Mueller and Mallard, 2011), though Singh et al (2010) found little O 3 production in wildfire plumes in California unless mixing with an urban plume occurred. The role of stratospheric intrusions and wildfires in contributing to differences between AM3 and GEOS-Chem high-NAB events is considered in Section 3.4.…”

Section: Review Of Prior Model Estimates For Nab and Its Componentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating North American background ozone in U.S. surface air with two independent global models: Variability, uncertainties, and recommendations

Fiore

Oberman

Lin

et al. 2014

Atmospheric Environment

107

131

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Accurate estimates for North American background (NAB) ozone (O 3 ) in surface air over the United States are needed for setting and implementing an attainable national O 3 standard. These estimates rely on simulations with atmospheric chemistry-transport models that set North American anthropogenic emissions to zero, and to date have relied heavily on one global model. We examine, for the first time, NAB estimates for spring and summer 2006 with two independent global models (GEOS-Chem and GFDL AM3). where it correlates with observed O 3 . At these sites, a 27-year GFDL AM3 simulation simulates observed O 3 events above 60 ppb and indicates a role for year-to-year variations in NAB O 3 in driving their frequency (contributing 50-60 ppb or more during some events). During summer over the eastern United States (EUS), when photochemical production from regional anthropogenic emissions peaks, NAB is largely uncorrelated with observed values and it is lower than at high-altitude sites (average values of ~20-30 ppb). We identify four processes that contribute substantially to model differences in specific regions and seasons: lightning NO x , biogenic isoprene emissions and chemistry, wildfires, and stratosphere-to-troposphere transport. Differences in model representation of these processes contribute more to uncertainty in NAB estimates than the choice of horizontal resolution within a single model. We propose that future efforts seek to constrain these processes with targeted analysis of multi-model simulations evaluated with observations of O 3 and related species from multiple platforms, and thereby reduce the error on NAB estimates needed for air quality planning.

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Pollution influences on atmospheric composition and chemistry at high northern latitudes: Boreal and California forest fire emissions

Cited by 137 publications

References 53 publications

Observations and impacts of transported Canadian wildfire smoke on ozone and aerosol air quality in the Maryland region on June 9–12, 2015

Observations and impacts of transported Canadian wildfire smoke on ozone and aerosol air quality in the Maryland region on June 9–12, 2015

Tropospheric ozone and its precursors from the urban to the global scale from air quality to short-lived climate forcer

Estimating North American background ozone in U.S. surface air with two independent global models: Variability, uncertainties, and recommendations

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