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Improving the Vertical Distribution of Fire Emissions in CMAQ
Citation:
Wilkins, J. Improving the Vertical Distribution of Fire Emissions in CMAQ. 2018 Fire Continuum Conference, Missoula, MT, May 21 - 24, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Since Biomass burning has been identified as an important contributor to the degradation of air quality, having an accurate emission inventory of this emission source is important. One satellite product that has been used since 2003 in the biomass burning emission inventory is the Hazard Mapping System (HMS) which incorporates fire detections using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) sensor. The key research question being investigated is the unrealistic fire detections over coastal areas, notably over Southern Louisiana. This research investigates the fire detections found in the HMS operational product and recommends using an improved retrospective MODIS fire product that has had more quality assurance for fire detections. We plan to use the results of the research to improve the quality of the fire detections that are used as a basis for future emission inventories of biomass burning over the United States.
Description:
The area burned by wildland fires (prescribed and wild) across the contiguous United States (U.S.) has expanded by nearly 50% and now averages 2 million hectares per year. Such fires are estimated to cause 8000 deaths per year and are monetized as having a ~$450 billion impact to the U.S. economy. Air quality simulation models, like the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system, are extensively used by environmental decision makers to examine the impact of air pollution on human health, and to devise strategies for reducing or mitigating exposure of humans to harmful levels of air pollution. With fires now occurring more frequently and burning more intensely, the exposure of humans to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) is projected to grow. Understanding how the contaminated plumes from these fire emissions move vertically through the atmosphere is important for estimating these exposures. Many air quality models rely on plume rise algorithms to determine the vertical allocation of emissions. These approaches use various input models or in-line plume height calculations (with fewer using manual input for vertical heights), to determine plume height vertical structures to simulate the transport of emissions. In this study, we tested basic plume rise methods and the impact to the simulated allocation of the vertical distribution of smoke, separately characterizing smoldering and flaming fires, identifying agricultural vs prescribed fires, and adjusting the diurnal profile of smoke emissions.
