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NARSTO Workshop on Innovative Methods for Emission Inventory Development and Evaluation University of Texas, Austin October 14-17, 2003 |
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Estimation of Biomass Smoke Emissions and Transport using Satellite and Surface Observations
Rudolf B. Husar and Sean Raffuse
CAPITA, Washington University in St. Louis
There is increasing evidence that biomass smoke is the dominant contributor to the regional carbonations aerosols over the Western US and possibly over the Southeastern US as well. Unfortunately, the current data are inadequate to provide quantitative biomass smoke emission estimates. Even speciated PM data are largely inconclusive regarding the contribution of biomass smoke to PM. These measurement problems associated with smoke emissions severely hamper the management of PM2.5 and Regional Haze.
Biomass fires smoke emissions are intermittent ‘point´ sources. Because of the large emission densities near the fire, current environmental satellites sensors such as MODIS, AVHRR, SeaWiFS and TOMS can detect the smoke from small and large fires. This work-in-progress utilizes the 8 wavelength, 1 km resolution SeaWiFS sensor to detect and quantify the smoke aerosol. A novel co-retrieval algorithm first retrieves the smoke/haze-free surface reflectance and subsequently the smoke optical thickness is retrieved for each cloud-free pixel at local noon. The smoke plume vertical optical thickness is converted to aerosol mass using retrieved size distribution. The smoke flux (emission rate) for each individual plume is obtained from surface wind data near the fires.
The smoke emission measurement methodology using combined satellite and surface data will be illustrated for the 2000 and 2002 smoke seasons. The emission and smoke transport for large fires (Idaho, 2000; Quebec, 2002) as well as from small fires (Southeastern US, 2000) will be illustrated. It is hoped that the challenging full development and evaluation of this smoke emission methodology as well as the routine monitoring of the unpredictable, episodic smoke emissions will be a collaborative community effort.