Severe Californian wildfires in November 2018 observed from space: the carbon monoxide perspective
<p>Due to proceeding climate change, some regions such as California face rising weather extremes with dry periods becoming warmer and drier, entailing the risk that wildfires and associated air pollution episodes will continue to increase. November 2018 turned into one of the most severe wild...
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doaj-a776e305838c4020bb8f86824def58732020-11-25T02:37:40ZengCopernicus PublicationsAtmospheric Chemistry and Physics1680-73161680-73242020-03-01203317333210.5194/acp-20-3317-2020Severe Californian wildfires in November 2018 observed from space: the carbon monoxide perspectiveO. SchneisingM. BuchwitzM. ReuterH. BovensmannJ. P. Burrows<p>Due to proceeding climate change, some regions such as California face rising weather extremes with dry periods becoming warmer and drier, entailing the risk that wildfires and associated air pollution episodes will continue to increase. November 2018 turned into one of the most severe wildfire episodes on record in California, with two particularly destructive wildfires spreading concurrently through the north and the south of the state. Both fires ignited at the wildland–urban interface, causing many civilian fatalities and forcing the total evacuation of several cities and communities.</p> <p>Here we demonstrate that the inherent carbon monoxide (<span class="inline-formula">CO</span>) emissions of the wildfires and subsequent transport can be observed from space by analysing radiance measurements of the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite in the shortwave infrared spectral range. From the determined <span class="inline-formula">CO</span> distribution we assess the corresponding air quality burden in major Californian cities caused by the fires and discuss the associated uncertainties. As a result of the prevailing wind conditions, the largest <span class="inline-formula">CO</span> load during the first days of the fires is found in Sacramento and San Francisco, with city area averages reaching boundary layer concentration anomalies of about <span class="inline-formula">2.5</span> <span class="inline-formula">mg CO m<sup>−3</sup></span>. Even the most polluted city scenes likely comply with the national ambient air quality standards (<span class="inline-formula">10</span> <span class="inline-formula">mg CO m<sup>−3</sup></span> with 8 h averaging time). This finding based on dense daily recurrent satellite monitoring is consistent with isolated ground-based air quality measurements.</p>https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/20/3317/2020/acp-20-3317-2020.pdf |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
O. Schneising M. Buchwitz M. Reuter H. Bovensmann J. P. Burrows |
spellingShingle |
O. Schneising M. Buchwitz M. Reuter H. Bovensmann J. P. Burrows Severe Californian wildfires in November 2018 observed from space: the carbon monoxide perspective Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
author_facet |
O. Schneising M. Buchwitz M. Reuter H. Bovensmann J. P. Burrows |
author_sort |
O. Schneising |
title |
Severe Californian wildfires in November 2018 observed from space: the carbon monoxide perspective |
title_short |
Severe Californian wildfires in November 2018 observed from space: the carbon monoxide perspective |
title_full |
Severe Californian wildfires in November 2018 observed from space: the carbon monoxide perspective |
title_fullStr |
Severe Californian wildfires in November 2018 observed from space: the carbon monoxide perspective |
title_full_unstemmed |
Severe Californian wildfires in November 2018 observed from space: the carbon monoxide perspective |
title_sort |
severe californian wildfires in november 2018 observed from space: the carbon monoxide perspective |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
series |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
issn |
1680-7316 1680-7324 |
publishDate |
2020-03-01 |
description |
<p>Due to proceeding climate change, some regions such as California face rising weather extremes with
dry periods becoming warmer and drier, entailing the risk that wildfires and associated air
pollution episodes will continue to increase. November 2018 turned into one of the most severe
wildfire episodes on record in California, with two particularly destructive wildfires spreading
concurrently through the north and the south of the state. Both fires ignited at the wildland–urban
interface, causing many civilian fatalities and forcing the total evacuation of several cities and
communities.</p>
<p>Here we demonstrate that the inherent carbon monoxide (<span class="inline-formula">CO</span>) emissions of the wildfires and
subsequent transport can be observed from space by analysing radiance measurements of the
TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor
satellite in the shortwave infrared spectral range. From the determined <span class="inline-formula">CO</span> distribution we
assess the corresponding air quality burden in major Californian cities caused by the fires and
discuss the associated uncertainties. As a result of the prevailing wind conditions, the largest
<span class="inline-formula">CO</span> load during the first days of the fires is found in Sacramento and San Francisco, with
city area averages reaching boundary layer concentration anomalies of about
<span class="inline-formula">2.5</span> <span class="inline-formula">mg CO m<sup>−3</sup></span>. Even the most polluted city scenes likely comply with the
national ambient air quality standards (<span class="inline-formula">10</span> <span class="inline-formula">mg CO m<sup>−3</sup></span> with 8 h averaging
time). This finding based on dense daily recurrent satellite monitoring is consistent with isolated
ground-based air quality measurements.</p> |
url |
https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/20/3317/2020/acp-20-3317-2020.pdf |
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AT oschneising severecalifornianwildfiresinnovember2018observedfromspacethecarbonmonoxideperspective AT mbuchwitz severecalifornianwildfiresinnovember2018observedfromspacethecarbonmonoxideperspective AT mreuter severecalifornianwildfiresinnovember2018observedfromspacethecarbonmonoxideperspective AT hbovensmann severecalifornianwildfiresinnovember2018observedfromspacethecarbonmonoxideperspective AT jpburrows severecalifornianwildfiresinnovember2018observedfromspacethecarbonmonoxideperspective |
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