1 research outputs found
Regional Influence of Aerosol Emissions from Wildfires Driven by Combustion Efficiency: Insights from the BBOP Campaign
Wildfires
are important contributors to atmospheric aerosols and
a large source of emissions that impact regional air quality and global
climate. In this study, the regional and nearfield influences of wildfire
emissions on ambient aerosol concentration and chemical properties
in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States were studied
using real-time measurements from a fixed ground site located in Central
Oregon at the Mt. Bachelor Observatory (∼2700 m a.s.l.) as
well as near their sources using an aircraft. The regional characteristics
of biomass burning aerosols were found to depend strongly on the modified
combustion efficiency (MCE), an index of the combustion processes
of a fire. Organic aerosol emissions had negative correlations with
MCE, whereas the oxidation state of organic aerosol increased with
MCE and plume aging. The relationships between the aerosol properties
and MCE were consistent between fresh emissions (∼1 h old)
and emissions sampled after atmospheric transport (6–45 h),
suggesting that biomass burning organic aerosol concentration and
chemical properties were strongly influenced by combustion processes
at the source and conserved to a significant extent during regional
transport. These results suggest that MCE can be a useful metric for
describing aerosol properties of wildfire emissions and their impacts
on regional air quality and global climate