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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Keywords

  • wildfire smoke
  • smoke injection height
  • remote sensing aerosol heights

Index Terms

  • Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Aerosols and particles
  • Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Constituent sources and sinks
  • Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Troposphere: constituent transport and chemistry
  • Atmospheric Processes: Remote sensing
  • Atmospheric Processes: Regional modeling

Abstract

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 35, L04809, 4 PP., 2008
doi:10.1029/2007GL032165

Wildfire smoke injection heights: Two perspectives from space

Ralph A. Kahn

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA

Yang Chen

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA

David L. Nelson

Columbus Technologies and Services, Inc., Pasadena, California, USA

Fok-Yan Leung

School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Qinbin Li

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA

David J. Diner

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA

Jennifer A. Logan

School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

The elevation at which wildfire smoke is injected into the atmosphere has a strong influence on how the smoke is dispersed, and is a key input to aerosol transport models. Aerosol layer height is derived with great precision from space-borne lidar, but horizontal sampling is very poor on a global basis. Aerosol height derived from space-borne stereo imaging is limited to source plumes having discernable features. But coverage is vastly greater, and captures the cores of major fires, where buoyancy can be sufficient to lift smoke above the near-surface boundary layer. Initial assessment of smoke injection from the Alaska-Yukon region during summer 2004 finds at least about 10% of wildfire smoke plumes reached the free troposphere. Modeling of smoke environmental impacts can benefit from the combined strengths of the stereo and lidar observations.

Received 27 September 2007; accepted 18 January 2008; published 22 February 2008.

Citation: Kahn, R. A., Y. Chen, D. L. Nelson, F.-Y. Leung, Q. Li, D. J. Diner, and J. A. Logan (2008), Wildfire smoke injection heights: Two perspectives from space, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L04809, doi:10.1029/2007GL032165.

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