Identification of CO plumes from MOPITT data: Application to the August 2000 Idaho-Montana forest fires

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Read Full Article (file size: 1245705 bytes) Cited by GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 30, NO. 13, 1688, doi:10.1029/2003GL017503, 2003 Identification of CO plumes from MOPITT data: Application to the August 2000 Idaho-Montana forest fires J.-F. Lamarque Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA D. P. Edwards Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA L. K. Emmons Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA J. C. Gille Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA O. Wilhelmi Environmental and Societal Impacts Group, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA C. Gerbig Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA D. Prevedel United States Forest Service, Ogden, Utah, USA M. N. Deeter Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA J. Warner Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA D. C. Ziskin Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA B. Khattatov Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA G. L. Francis Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA V. Yudin Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA S. Ho Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA D. Mao Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA J. Chen Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA J. R. Drummond Dept. of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada Abstract This study focuses on the identification of carbon monoxide (CO) released during the forest fires that took place primarily in Montana and Idaho during the summer of 2000. We focus our analysis on the most intense period of the fires during the second half of August. During that period, the MOPITT instrument onboard the EOS-Terra platform collected extensive measurements of CO. A simulation of the dispersal of the CO from the fires, constrained by the AVHRR observations of fire location and extent, clearly identifies the affected regions. The model results are compared with the CO observations from the COBRA experiment flight on August 19. Using these various data, we are able to identify the transport of the CO plume originating from the fires. In particular, it is shown that the CO travels eastward from the fires, reaching as far as the East coast and the Gulf of Mexico in a few days. Although the distribution of CO over the U.S. is clearly a combination of a variety of sources it is found that wildfires are a strong component of the summer tropospheric CO. Received 8 April 2003; accepted 29 May 2003; published 5 July 2003. Index Terms: 0322 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Constituent sources and sinks; 0345 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Pollution—urban and regional (0305); 0368 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Troposphere—constituent transport and chemistry. Read Full Article (file size: 1245705 bytes) Cited by Citation: Lamarque, J.-F., et al. (2003), Identification of CO plumes from MOPITT data: Application to the August 2000 Idaho-Montana forest fires, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(13), 1688, doi:10.1029/2003GL017503. Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union.

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