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At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2021

Biomass Burning and Water Balance Dynamics in the Lake Chad Basin in Africa

The present study investigates the effect of biomass burning on the water cycle using a case study of the Chari-Logone Catchment of Lake Chad Basin. The Chari-Logone catchment was selected since it supplies over 90% of the water input to the Lake, which is the largest basin in the NSSA. Two water balance simulations, one considering burning and one without, were compared from the years 2003 to 2011. For a more comprehensive assessment of the effects of burning, albedo change, which has been shown to have a significant impact on a number of environmental factors, was used as a model input for calculating potential evapotranspiration. Analysis of the burning scenario show that burning grassland, which composes almost 75% of Chari-Logone total land cover, causes increased ET and runoff during winter months. Recent studies have demonstrated the increasing trend in LCB of converting shrubland, grassland, and wetlands to cropland. This change from grassland to cropland has the potential of decreasing water available to water bodies during the winter. All vegetative classes in a burning scenario showed a decrease in ET during the wet season, supporting the idea that, with increased burning, there would be a severe decrease of precipitation.

africa↗
NASA NTRS2016

Aircraft-Measured Indirect Cloud Effects from Biomass Burning Smoke in the Arctic and Subarctic

The incidence of wildfires in the Arctic and subarctic is increasing; in boreal North America, for example, the burned area is expected to increase by 200-300 over the next 50-100 years, which previous studies suggest could have a large effect on cloud microphysics, lifetime, albedo, and precipitation. However, the interactions between smoke particles and clouds remain poorly quantified due to confounding meteorological influences and remote sensing limitations. Here, we use data from several aircraft campaigns in the Arctic and subarctic to explore cloud microphysics in liquid-phase clouds influenced by biomass burning. Median cloud droplet radii in smoky clouds were 50 smaller than in background clouds. Based on the relationship between cloud droplet number (N(liq))/ and various biomass burning tracers (BBt/ across the multi-campaign dataset, we calculated the magnitude of subarctic and Arctic smoke aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI, where ACI = (1/3) x dln(N(liq))/dln(BBt)) to be 0.12 out of a maximum possible value of 0.33 that would be obtained if all aerosols were to nucleate cloud droplets. Interestingly, in a separate subarctic case study with low liquid water content (0.02 gm/ cu m) and very high aerosol concentrations (2000-3000 cu m) in the most polluted clouds, the estimated ACI value was only 0.06. In this case, competition for water vapor by the high concentration of CCN strongly limited the formation of droplets and reduced the cloud albedo effect, which highlights the importance of cloud feedbacks across scales. Using our calculated ACI values, we estimate that the smoke-driven cloud albedo effect may decrease shortwave radiative flux by 2 and 4 W/sq or more under some low and homogeneous cloud cover conditions in the subarctic, although the changes should be smaller in high surface albedo regions of the Arctic. We lastly show evidence to suggest that numerous northern latitude background Aitken particles can interact with combustion particles, perhaps impacting their properties as cloud condensation and ice nuclei. However, the influence of background particles on smoke-driven indirect effects is currently unclear.

Arctic↗
NASA NTRS1989

Remote sensing of biomass burning in the tropics

A technique for assessing the effects of biomass burning on the climate is described. This method is based on the analysis of remote sensing data for the emitted particulates. The relationship between particulates and trace gases is studied. The assessment technique is applied to the 1987 burning season in Brazil. It is noted that during the dry season there may be up to 5000 fires per day which emit 200 ton/hr CO2, 20 ton/hr CO, and 0.5 ton/hr of CH4 to the atmosphere.

Kaufman, Yoram J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Convection links biomass burning to increased tropical ozone - However, models will tend to overpredict O3

Biomass burning throughout the inhabited portions of the tropics generates precursors which lead to significant local atmospheric ozone pollution. Several simulations show how this smog could be only an easily observed, local manifestation of a much broader increase in tropospheric ozone. The basic processes are illustrated with a one-dimensional time-dependent model that is closer to true meteorological motions than commonly used eddy diffusion models. Its application to a representative region of South America gives reasonable simulations of the local pollutants measured there. Three illustrative simulations indicate the importance of dilution, principally due to vertical transport, in increasing the efficiency of ozone production, possibly enough for high ozone to be apparent on a very large, intercontinental scale.

Chatfield, Robert B.↗
NASA NTRS2021

Analysis of Aeronet Extended Wavelength Retrievals of Aerosol Absorption Parameters Including 380 NM and 500 NM for Detection of Brown Carbon in Biomass Burning and Iron Oxides in Desert Dust

To investigate near UV aerosol absorbers, such as iron in mineral dust and brown carbon from biomass burning, AERONET spectral imaginary refractive index and size distributions retrievals were performed with the input of additional wavelength data. This includes adding both measured spectral AOD and sky radiances at 380 nm and 500 nm to the four channels (440, 675, 870 and 1020 nm) that are used in the standard retrieval data product. The vector radiative transfer code in the AERONET Version 3 retrievals enabled more accurate computations in the ultraviolet region (380 nm). Calibration of the 380 nm channel radiances was done by the vicarious method since the integrating sphere radiance source that is used for all other wavelengths does not produce sufficient energy at 380 nm. Spectral single scattering albedo, imaginary refractive indices and aerosol size distributions from these six wavelength retrievals are compared to the standard four wavelength retrieval values.

Aerosol↗
NASA NTRS2014

Interactions Between Biomass-Burning Aerosols and Clouds over Southeast Asia: Current Status, Challenges, and Perspectives

The interactions between aerosols, clouds, and precipitation remain among the largest sources of uncertainty in the Earth's energy budget. Biomass-burning aerosols are a key feature of the global aerosol system, with significant annually-repeating fires in several parts of the world, including Southeast Asia (SEA). SEA in particular provides a "natural laboratory" for these studies, as smoke travels from source regions downwind in which it is coupled to persistent stratocumulus decks. However, SEA has been under-exploited for these studies. This review summarizes previous related field campaigns in SEA, with a focus on the ongoing Seven South East Asian Studies (7-SEAS) and results from the most recent BASELInE deployment. Progress from remote sensing and modeling studies, along with the challenges faced for these studies, are also discussed. We suggest that improvements to our knowledge of these aerosol/cloud effects require the synergistic use of field measurements with remote sensing and modeling tools.

biomass-burning aerosol↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Exploring the Elevated Water Vapor Signal Associated With the Free Tropospheric Biomass Burning Plume Over the Southeast Atlantic Ocean

In southern Africa, widespread agricultural fires produce substantial biomass burning (BB) emissions over the region. The seasonal smoke plumes associated with these emissions are then advected westward over the persistent stratocumulus cloud deck in the southeast Atlantic (SEA) Ocean, resulting in aerosol effects which vary with time and location. Much work has focused on the effects of these aerosol plumes, but previous studies have also described an elevated free tropospheric water vapor signal over the SEA. Water vapor influences climate in its own right, and it is especially important to consider atmospheric water vapor when quantifying aerosol–cloud interactions and aerosol radiative effects. Here we present airborne observations made during the NASA ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) campaign over the SEA Ocean. In observations collected from multiple independent instruments on the NASA P-3 aircraft (from near-surface to 6–7 km), we observe a strongly linear correlation between pollution indicators (carbon monoxide (CO) and aerosol loading) and atmospheric water vapor content, seen at all altitudes above the boundary layer. The focus of the current study is on the especially strong correlation observed during the ORACLES-2016 deployment (out of Walvis Bay, Namibia), but a similar relationship is also observed in the August 2017 and October 2018 ORACLES deployments. Using reanalyses from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2), and specialized WRF-Chem simulations, we trace the plume–vapor relationship to an initial humid, smoky continental source region, where it mixes with clean, dry upper tropospheric air and then is subjected to conditions of strong westward advection, namely the southern African easterly jet (AEJ-S). Our analysis indicates that air masses likely left the continent with the same relationship between water vapor and carbon monoxide as was observed by aircraft. This linear relationship developed over the continent due to daytime convection within a deep continental boundary layer (up to ∼5–6 km) and mixing with higher-altitude air, which resulted in fairly consistent vertical gradients in CO and water vapor, decreasing with altitude and varying in time, but this water vapor does not originate as a product of the BB combustion itself. Due to a combination of conditions and mixing between the smoky, moist continental boundary layer and the dry and fairly clean upper-troposphere air above (∼6 km), the smoky, humid air is transported by strong zonal winds and then advected over the SEA (to the ORACLES flight region) following largely isentropic trajectories. Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory model (HYSPLIT) back trajectories support this interpretation. This work thus gives insights into the conditions and processes which cause water vapor to covary with plume strength. Better understanding of this relationship, including how it varies spatially and temporally, is important to accurately quantify direct, semi-direct, and indirect aerosol effects over this region.

Kristina Pistone↗
NASA NTRS2012

Characterization of Aerosols over the Indochina Peninsula from Satellite-Surface Observations During Biomass Burning Pre-Monsoon Season

This paper presents characterization of aerosols over the Indochina peninsular regions of Southeast Asia during pre-monsoon season from satellite and ground-based radiometric observations. Our analysis focuses on the seasonal peak period in aerosol loading and biomass burning, prior to the onset of the Asian summer monsoon, as observed in the inter-annual variations of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and fire count data from MODIS. Multi-year (2007-2011) analysis of spaceborne lidar measurements, from CALIOP, indicates presence of aerosols mostly within boundary layer, however extending to elevated altitudes to approx. 4 km over northern regions of Indochina, encompassing Myanmar, northern Thailand and southern China. In addition, a strong gradient in aerosol loading and vertical distribution is observed from the relatively clean equatorial conditions to heavy smoke-laden northern regions (greater aerosol extinction and smaller depolarization ratio). Based on column-integrated ground-based measurements from four AERONET locations distributed over Thailand, the regional aerosol loading is found to be significantly absorbing with spectral single scattering albedo (SSA) below 0.91+/-0.02 in the 440-1020 nm range, with lowest seasonal mean SSA (most absorbing aerosol) over the northern location of Chiang Mai (SSA approx. 0.85) during pre-monsoon season. The smoke-laden aerosol loading is found to exhibit a significant diurnal pattern with higher AOD departures during early morning observations relative to late afternoon conditions (peak difference of more than 15% amplitude). Finally, satellite-based aerosol radiative impact is assessed using CERES shortwave Top-of-Atmosphere flux, in conjunction with MODIS AOD. Overall, a consistency in the aerosol-induced solar absorption characteristic is found among selected regions from ground-based sunphotometer-derived spectral SSA retrievals and satellite-based radiative forcing analysis.

Indochina↗
NASA NTRS2009

Emissions from Biomass Burning in the Yucatan

In March 2006 two instrumented aircraft made the first detailed field measurements of biomass burning (BB) emissions in the Northern Hemisphere tropics as part of the MILAGRO project. The aircraft were the National Center for Atmospheric Research C-130 and a University of Montana/US Forest Service Twin Otter. The initial emissions of up to 49 trace gas or particle species were measured from 20 deforestation and crop residue fires on the Yucatan peninsula. This included two trace gases useful as indicaters of BB (HCN and acetonitrile) and several rarely, or never before, measured species: OH, peroxyacetic acid, propanoic acid, hydrogen peroxide, methane sulfonic acid, and sulfuric acid. Crop residue fires emitted more organic acids and ammonia than deforestation fires, but the emissions from the main fire types were otherwise fairly similar. The Yucatan fires emitted unusually amounts of SO2 and particle chloride, likely due to a strong marine influence on the peninsula.

Yokelson, R.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Effects of aerosol from biomass burning on the global radiation budget

An analysis is made of the likely contribution of smoke particles from biomass burning to the global radiation balance. These particles act to reflect solar radiation directly; they also can act as cloud condensation nuclei, increasing the reflectivity of clouds. Together these effects, although uncertain, may add up globally to a cooling effect as large as 2 watts per square meter, comparable to the estimated contribution to sulfate aerosols. Anthropogenic increases of smoke emission thus may have helped weaken the net greenhouse warming from anthropogenic trace gases.

Penner, Joyce E.↗
NASA NTRS2022

Emission Factors and Evolution of SO2 Measured From Biomass Burning in Wildfires and Agricultural Fires

Fires emit sufficient sulfur to affect local and regional air quality and climate. This study analyzes SO2 emission factors and variability in smoke plumes from US wildfires and agricultural fires, as well as their relationship to sulfate and hydroxymethanesulfonate (HMS) formation. Observed SO2 emission factors for various fuel types show good agreement with the latest reviews of biomass burning emission factors, producing an emission factor range of 0.47–1.2 g SO2 kg^(−1) C. These emission factors vary with geographic location in a way that suggests that deposition of coal burning emissions and application of sulfur-containing fertilizers likely play a role in the larger observed values, which are primarily associated with agricultural burning. A 0-D box model generally reproduces the observed trends of SO2 and total sulfate (inorganic + organic) in aging wildfire plumes. In many cases, modeled HMS is consistent with the observed organosulfur concentrations. However, a comparison of observed organosulfur and modeled HMS suggests that multiple organosulfur compounds are likely responsible for the observations but that the chemistry of these compounds yields similar production and loss rates as that of HMS, resulting in good agreement with the modeled results. We provide suggestions for constraining the organosulfur compounds observed during these flights, and we show that the chemistry of HMS can allow organosulfur to act as an S(IV) reservoir under conditions of pH > 6 and liquid water content >10^(−7) g sm^(−3). This can facilitate long-range transport of sulfur emissions, resulting in increased SO2 and eventually sulfate in transported smoke.

Sulfur↗
NASA NTRS2003

Airborne Measurements of Carbonaceous Aerosols in Southern Africa during the Dry Biomass Burning Season

Particulate matter collected aboard the University of Washington's (UW) Convair-580 research aircrafi over southem Afiica during the dry biomass burning season was analyzed for total carbon (TC), organic carbon (OC), and black carbon (BC) contents using thermal and optical methods. Samples were collected in smoke plumes of burning savanna and in regional haze. A known artifact, produced by the adsorption of organic gases on the quartz filter substrates used to collect the particulate matter samples, comprised a significant portion of the TC collected. Consequently, conclusions derived from the data are greatly dependent on whether or not OC concentrations are corrected for this artifact. For example, the estimated aerosol coalbedo (1 - single scattering albedo (SSA)), which is a measure of aerosol absorption, of the biomass smoke samples is 60% larger using corrected OC concentrations. Thus, the corrected data imply that the biomass smoke is 60% more absorbing than do the uncorrected data. The BC to (corrected) OC mass ratio (BC/OC) of smoke plume samples (0.18 plus or minus 0.06) is lower than that of samples collected in the regional haze (0.25 plus or minus 0.08). The difference may be due to mixing of biomass smoke with background air characterized by a higher BC/OC ratio. A simple source apportionment indicates that biomass smoke contributes about three quarters of the aerosol burden in the regional haze, while other souxes (e.g., fossil fuel burning) contribute the remainder.

Kirchstetter, Thomas W.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Observations of Smoke Aerosol from Biomass Burning in Mexico: Effect of Particle Aging on Radiative Forcing and Remote Sensing

We take advantage of the May 1998 biomass burning event in Southern Mexico to test the global applicability of a smoke aerosol size model developed from data observed in South America. The Mexican event is an unique opportunity to observe well-aged, residual smoke. Observations of smoke aerosol size distribution made from vertical profiles of airborne in situ measurements show an inverse relationship between concentration and particle size that suggests the aging process continues more than a week after the smoke is separated from its fire sources. The ground-based radiometer retrievals show that the column-averaged, aged, Mexican smoke particles are larger (diameter = 0.28 - 0.33 micrometers) than the mean smoke particles in South America (diameter = 0.22 - 0.30 micrometers). However, the difference (delta - 0.06 micrometer) translates into differences in backscattering coefficient of only 4-7% and an increase of direct radiative forcing of only 10%.

Remer, Lorraine A.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Using satellite observations to quantify biomass burning emissions of NOx, and hydrocarbons in the Tropics

This is the final report for "Using satellite observations to quantify biomass burning emissions of NOx and hydrocarbons in the Tropics", funded through the New Investigator Program between March 2001 and March 2005. This period includes a 1-year no-cost extension of the original award. This report summarizes our accomplishments during the duration of the grant. Section 2 focuses on the research component of this work, while section 3 describes the education component. The personnel supported under this project is given in section 4. Section 5 lists publications resulting from NASA support and section 6 provides a list of conferences and seminars where the results were presented.

Jaegle, Lyatt↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Variations in radiative heating of humid biomass burning aerosols in the southeast Atlantic from airborne observations and reanalysis

The atmosphere over the southeast Atlantic Ocean (SEA) experiences consistent springtime biomass burning (BB) smoke from widespread agricultural fires on the African continent. This smoke layer is initially lofted high in a continental mixed layer (~5-6km) and is then transported westward into the free troposphere where it overlies and ultimately mixes into a stratocumulus-topped oceanic boundary layer. Coincident with this smoke is an elevated humidity signal which is present from the time a given airmass is over the continental source region. ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) was a NASA Earth Venture Suborbital mission with the goal of measuring aerosol, cloud, and atmospheric properties over this region over three deployments in September 2016, August 2017, and October 2018. Measurements included in situ profile measurements of aerosol physical and optical properties, trace gas concentrations, and cloud properties, as well as column measurements of aerosol optical depth and trace gas concentrations from an airborne sun photometer. Here we present results from each of the ORACLES deployments over the southeast Atlantic Ocean. Despite the differing locations and season of each deployment, we show that there is good agreement between the airborne ORACLES dataset and large-scale reanalyses, specifically the ECMWF ERA5 reanalyses (and, to a degree, the CAMS product) as compared to other available products. This agreement allows us to examine multi-year seasonal patterns and trends beyond the three months with available aircraft data. In both the data and reanalysis, we find distinct variations between each deployment in terms of vertical smoke distribution and correlation to atmospheric specific humidity, due to changing conditions over the BB season. We trace the origin and the history of these smoky airmasses and finally, we briefly discuss the broader radiative and dynamical implications of these results for conditions of aerosols overlying stratocumulus clouds.

K. Pistone↗
NASA NTRS2019

Evaluation of the Impacts of Biomass Burning Aerosols on the NASA GEOS Sub-Seasonal Climate Forecasts

Emission sources of trace gases and aerosol particles in the South American (SA)and African (Af) continents have a strong seasonal and space variability associated with the extensive vegetation fires activities. In both continents, during the austral winter, the fires affect mainly tropical forest and savannah-type biomes and are mostly associated with deforestation and agricultural/pasture land management. Smoke aerosol particles, on average, contribute to at least 90% of the total aerosol optical depth (AOD) in the visible spectrum in the case of the South America regional smoke. Smoke aerosols also act as cloud condensation nuclei affecting cloud microphysics properties and therefore, changing the radiation budget, hydrological cycle and global circulation patterns over disturbed areas (Kaufman, 1995; Rosenfeld, 1999; Andreae,et al., 2004; Koren et al., 2004, Zhang, 2008; Ott et al., 2010; Randles et al., 2013). This study aims to evaluate and quantify the impact of including a comprehensive emission field of biomass burning aerosol on the performance of a seasonal climate forecast system, not only regarding the AOD itself but mainly on the meteorological state variable (e.g., precipitation and temperature). To address the questions put above, we designed two numerical experiments: 1- named"AERO_CTL" which applies the Quick Fire Emissions Dataset (QFED) emissions estimated with intra-diurnal variation (hereafter, BBE), and 2- named "AERO_CLM" where the sourcee mission is based on a climatology of the QFED emissions, with only monthly variation(hereafter, BBCLIM). Hindcast simulations were produced using the Goddard Earth ObservingSystem global circulation model, version 5, sub-seasonal to seasonal (GEOS5-S2S) system with a nominal spatial resolution of 56km (Rienecker et al., 2008). In both experiments, the aerosol feedbacks from cloud developments and radiation interactions were accounted. The two experiments consisted of 4 members each and ran from June to November spanning over the years 2000 to 2015. Model performance was evaluated by calculating statistical metrics on the mean area of SA and Af. Our results demonstrated that the skill model in predicting AOD is significantly improve when BBE source emission is applied over SA, but not over the Afcontinent. Over SA, the correlation between the AERO_CTL model configuration and MERRA-2 is 0.93 (R2= 0.86, RMS=0.02, BIAS=0.01), while the AERO_CLM model presents a value of0.81 (R2= 0.65, RMS=0.04, BIAS=0.06). However, the AERO_CTL experiment better represents the inter-annual variability of the AOS in both regions. The gain of the skill in predicting the AOD by the AERO_CTL experiment is also seen in some meteorological variables. We observed an increase in the model skill in predicting the 2-meter temperature and precipitation of up to 0.3 for the AERO_CTL experiment in comparison to the AERO_CLM. AERO_CLM. According to the analyzed hindcast, we inferred that representing the BBE more realistically implies in a significant gain of skills in the seasonal climate forecasting over SA and Af continents.

Aerosol↗
NASA NTRS2013

From BASE-ASIA Toward 7-SEAS: A Satellite-Surface Perspective of Boreal Spring Biomass-Burning Aerosols and Clouds in Southeast Asia

In this paper, we present recent field studies conducted by NASA's SMART-COMMIT (and ACHIEVE, to be operated in 2013) mobile laboratories, jointly with distributed ground-based networks (e.g., AERONET, http://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/ and MPLNET, http://mplnet.gsfc.nasa.gov/) and other contributing instruments over northern Southeast Asia. These three mobile laboratories, collectively called SMARTLabs (cf. http://smartlabs.gsfc.nasa.gov/, Surface-based Mobile Atmospheric Research & Testbed Laboratories) comprise a suite of surface remote sensing and in-situ instruments that are pivotal in providing high spectral and temporal measurements, complementing the collocated spatial observations from various Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites. A satellite-surface perspective and scientific findings, drawn from the BASE-ASIA (2006) field deployment as well as a series of ongoing 7-SEAS (2010-13) field activities over northern Southeast Asia are summarized, concerning (i) regional properties of aerosols from satellite and in situ measurements, (ii) cloud properties from remote sensing and surface observations, (iii) vertical distribution of aerosols and clouds, and (iv) regional aerosol radiative effects and impact assessment. The aerosol burden over Southeast Asia in boreal spring, attributed to biomass burning, exhibits highly consistent spatial and temporal distribution patterns, with major variability arising from changes in the magnitude of the aerosol loading mediated by processes ranging from large-scale climate factors to diurnal meteorological events. Downwind from the source regions, the tightly coupled-aerosolecloud system provides a unique, natural laboratory for further exploring the micro- and macro-scale relationships of the complex interactions. The climatic significance is presented through large-scale anti-correlations between aerosol and precipitation anomalies, showing spatial and seasonal variability, but their precise cause-and-effect relationships remain an open-ended question. To facilitate an improved understanding of the regional aerosol radiative effects, which continue to be one of the largest uncertainties in climate forcing, a joint international effort is required and anticipated to commence in springtime 2013 in northern Southeast Asia.

biomass burning aerosols↗