Long term temporal variability of wildfires and its impacts on air quality over North America

HR: 0800h
AN: A51D-0106 [Abstracts]
TI: Long term temporal variability of wildfires and its impacts on air quality over North America
AU: * Chand, D
EM: dchand@uwb.edu
AF: University of Washington Bothell, 18115 Campus Way NE, Bothell, WA 98011-8246 United States
AU: Jaffe, D
EM: djaffe@u.washington.edu
AF: University of Washington Bothell, 18115 Campus Way NE, Bothell, WA 98011-8246 United States
AB: Wildland fires and vegetation burning are important processes for air quality. Numerous studies have shown that biomass burning can generate significant atmospheric emissions and reduce air quality. While satellite data is now routinely available for large fires, there are few studies on the long-term trends or air quality impacts from biomass burning. Here, we present a study of long term trends (1960-2000) of area burned by wildfires over the USA and Canada. We compiled data from the Canada `Canadian Wildland Fire Data Base' and U.S. `National Interagency Fire Center' databases, which cover the complete United States and Canada, respectively. Our first analysis shows a temporal trend (increase) in area burned per year since 1960. By dividing the fires into 5° latitude x 10° longitude zones, we find the greatest increase in area burned has occurred in the high latitude zones. These data are also being used to examine the regional and large scale impacts on air quality over this time period. The database is probed for fire locations, area burned and date and correlated with O₃ and particulate matter data from nearby sites. The goal of this work is to develop a quantitative understanding of how fires influence air quality variability and long-term trends. This work is currently in progress and the results will be presented at the meeting.
DE: 0345 Pollution: urban and regional (0305, 0478, 4251)
DE: 0368 Troposphere: constituent transport and chemistry
DE: 0490 Trace gases
DE: 3305 Climate change and variability (1616, 1635, 3309, 4215, 4513)
DE: 3311 Clouds and aerosols
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005