Satellite contributions to the quantitative characterization of biomass burning for climate modeling

Abstract

Characterization of biomass burning from space has been the subject of an extensive body of literature published over the last few decades. Given the importance of this topic, we review how satellite observations contribute toward improving the representation of biomass burning quantitatively in climate and air-quality modeling and assessment. Satellite observations related to biomass burning may be classified into five broad categories: (i) active fire location and energy release, (ii) burned areas and burn severity, (iii) smoke plume physical disposition, (iv) aerosol distribution and particle properties, and (v) trace gas concentrations. Each of these categories involves multiple parameters used in characterizing specific aspects of the biomass-burning phenomenon. Some of the parameters are merely qualitative, whereas others are quantitative, although all are essential for improving the scientific understanding of the overall distribution (both spatial and temporal) and impacts of biomass burning. Some of the qualitative satellite datasets, such as fire locations, aerosol index, and gas estimates have fairly long-term records. They date back as far as the 1970s, following the launches of the DMSP, Landsat, NOAA, and Nimbus series of earth observation satellites. Although there were additional satellite launches in the 1980s and 1990s, space-based retrieval of quantitative biomass burning data products began in earnest following the launch of Terra in December 1999. Starting in 2000, fire radiative power, aerosol optical thickness and particle properties over land, smoke plume injection height and profile, and essential trace gas concentrations at improved resolutions became available. The 2000s also saw a large list of other new satellite launches, including Aqua, Aura, Envisat, Parasol, and CALIPSO, carrying a host of sophisticated instruments providing high quality measurements of parameters related to biomass burning and other phenomena. These improved data products have enabled significant progress in the study of biomass burning from space. However, appreciable uncertainty remains in many of the measurements that still needs to be addressed. Nevertheless, climate and other atmospheric models are https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20120013651 2018-05-12T19:04:55+00:00Z 2 making significant adjustments to take advantage of quantitative satellite measurements in studying biomass burning activity, emissions, and impacts. New research directions should include not only improvements in satellite retrievals and modeling accuracies, but also increased synergy between them, such that satellite measurements can be directly input into models without requiring elaborate interpretation.

Fire emission heights in the climate system – Part 2: Impact on transport, black carbon concentrations and radiation

“…The authors compared modeling results to MOPITT (Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere) satellite data, but it turned out that the particular emission height impact on the overall bias was not quantifiable. Overall, modeling as well as observational studies (e.g., Diner et al, 2008;Val Martin et al, 2010;Ichoku et al, 2012) indicate that wildfire plume heights are highly variable on the global scale. While Freitas et al (2007), Rio et al (2010) and others demonstrated a reasonable performance for their specific plume height parametrizations in particular case studies; other authors including Val Martin et al (2012) and Goodrick et al (2012) presented results that showed a poor to moderate performance of all these models on the global scale.…”

A review of approaches to estimate wildfire plume injection height within large-scale atmospheric chemical transport models

“…Kahn et al, 2008). Ichoku et al (2012) provide a recent review of this topic. EO data also provide information on the characteristics of the causal fires themselves, including "active fire" (AF) products that detail the location, timing, and FRP of the landscapescale fires occurring within the EO satellite pixels (Giglio et al, 2003;Giglio and Schroeder, 2014;Peterson et al, 2014;Wooster et al, 2012a;Roberts and Wooster, 2008).…”

“…FRP is a fire characteristic that has been shown to relate quite directly to the total heat produced by the combustion process (Freeborn et al, 2008) and also to the rate of fuel consumption (Wooster et al, 2005), trace gas (Freeborn et al, 2008), and aerosol (e.g. Ichoku et al, 2012) emission. Such active fire products are usually derived from thermal wavelength Earth observations (Giglio et al, 2003;Roberts and Wooster, 2008;Wooster et al, 2012a).…”

Controle De Qualidade Posicional Em Dados Espaciais Utilizando Feições Lineares

“…A queima de biomassa compreende a combustão de todos os tipos de material orgânico (Ichoku et al, 2012) e representa uma importante fonte de emissão de aerossóis e gases traços para a atmosfera, influenciando, dessa forma, o clima, principalmente em escala regional, além de ser um fator introdutório de mudanças na paisagem local e regional. Desta forma, torna-se importante quantificá-la com o intuito de compreender seus impactos nos diferentes biomas e no clima (Schroeder et al, 2014).…”

“…De acordo com Ichoku et al (2012), entre as principais fontes de erro na estimativa da FRP podese citar o ângulo de visada. Com o aumento do ângulo de visada, o tamanho do pixel aumenta e, ainda, a precisão dos algoritmos de detecção de anomalias termais que originam os produtos de fogo ativo pode ser comprometida.…”