HR: 1330h
AN: A22C-1078    [PDF]
TI: The Use of Aerosol Optical Depth in Estimating Trace Gas Emissions from Biomass Burning Plumes
AU: * Jones, N
EM: njones@uow.edu.au
AF: Department of Chemistry, University of wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522 Australia
AU: Paton-Walsh, C
EM: clarem@uow.edu.au
AF: Department of Chemistry, University of wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522 Australia
AU: Wilson, S
EM: swiloson@uow.edu.au
AF: Department of Chemistry, University of wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522 Australia
AU: Meier, A
EM: arndt@apollolifesciences.com
AF: Appollo Life Sciences Pty Ltd, PO Box 371 Kingsford, Sydney, NSW 2032 Australia
AU: Deutscher, N
EM: nmd03@uow.edu.au
AF: Department of Chemistry, University of wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522 Australia
AU: Griffith, D
EM: griffith@uow.edu.au
AF: Department of Chemistry, University of wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522 Australia
AU: Murcray, F
AF: Department of Physics, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208 United States
AB: We have observed significant correlations between aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 500 nm and column amounts of a number of biomass burning indicators (carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde and ammonia) in bushfire smoke plumes over SE Australia during the 2001/2002 and 2002/2003 fire seasons from remote sensing measurements. The Department of Chemistry, University of Wollongong, operates a high resolution Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS), in the city of Wollongong, approximately 80 km south of Sydney. During the recent bushfires we collected over 1500 solar FTIR spectra directly through the smoke over Wollongong. The total column amounts of the biomass burning indicators were calculated using the profile retrieval software package SFIT2. Using the same solar beam, a small grating spectrometer equipped with a 2048 pixel CCD detector array, was used to calculate simultaneous aerosol optical depths. This dataset is therefore unique in its temporal sampling, location to active fires, and range of simultaneously measured constituents. There are several important applications of the AOD to gas column correlation. The estimation of global emissions from biomass burning currently has very large associated uncertainties. The use of visible radiances measured by satellites, and hence AOD, could significantly reduce these uncertainties by giving a direct estimate of global emissions of gases from biomass burning through application of the AOD to gas correlation. On a more local level, satellite-derived aerosol optical depth maps could be inverted to infer approximate concentration levels of smoke-related pollutants at the ground and in the lower troposphere, and thus can be used to determine the nature of any significant health impacts.
DE: 0300 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801)
DE: 0345 Pollution--urban and regional (0305)
DE: 0365 Troposphere--composition and chemistry
DE: 0394 Instruments and techniques
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting