Geostationary aerosol retrievals of extreme biomass burning plumes during the 2019–20 Australian bushfires

Extreme biomass burning (BB) events, such as those seen during the 2019–2020 Australian bushfire season, are becoming more frequent and intense with climate change. Ground-based observations of these events can provide useful information on the macro- and micro-physical properties of the plumes, but...

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Main Authors: Robbins, Daniel Jamie Victor, Poulsen, Caroline, Siems, Steven, Proud, Simon, Prata, Andrew, Grainger, Roy, Povey, Adam
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2179
https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-2179/
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spelling ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:egusphere114981 2024-09-15T17:35:18+00:00 Geostationary aerosol retrievals of extreme biomass burning plumes during the 2019–20 Australian bushfires Robbins, Daniel Jamie Victor Poulsen, Caroline Siems, Steven Proud, Simon Prata, Andrew Grainger, Roy Povey, Adam 2024-05-29 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2179 https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-2179/ eng eng doi:10.5194/egusphere-2023-2179 https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-2179/ eISSN: Text 2024 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2179 2024-08-28T05:24:15Z Extreme biomass burning (BB) events, such as those seen during the 2019–2020 Australian bushfire season, are becoming more frequent and intense with climate change. Ground-based observations of these events can provide useful information on the macro- and micro-physical properties of the plumes, but these observations are sparse, especially in regions which are at risk of intense bushfire events. Satellite observations of extreme BB events provide a unique perspective, with the newest generation of geostationary imagers, such as the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI), observing entire continents at moderate spatial and high temporal resolution. However, current passive satellite retrieval methods struggle to capture the high values of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) seen during these BB events. Accurate retrievals are necessary for global and regional studies of shortwave radiation, air quality modelling and numerical weather prediction. To address these issues, the Optimal Retrieval of Aerosol and Cloud (ORAC) algorithm has used AHI data to measure extreme BB plumes from the 2019–2020 Australian bushfire season. The sensitivity of the retrieval to the assumed optical properties of BB plumes is explored by comparing retrieved AOT with AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) level-1.5 data over the AERONET site at Tumbarumba, New South Wales, between 1 December 2019 at 00:00 UTC and 3 January 2020 at 00:00 UTC. The study shows that for AOT values > 2, the sensitivity to the assumed optical properties is substantial. The ORAC retrievals and AERONET data are compared against the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Aerosol Retrieval Product (ARP), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Deep Blue over land, MODIS MAIAC, Sentinel-3 SYN and VIIRS Deep Blue products. The comparison shows the ORAC retrieval significantly improves coverage of optically thick plumes relative to the JAXA ARP, with approximately twice as many pixels retrieved and peak retrieved AOT values 1.4 times higher than the JAXA ARP. ... Text Aerosol Robotic Network Copernicus Publications: E-Journals
institution Open Polar
collection Copernicus Publications: E-Journals
op_collection_id ftcopernicus
language English
description Extreme biomass burning (BB) events, such as those seen during the 2019–2020 Australian bushfire season, are becoming more frequent and intense with climate change. Ground-based observations of these events can provide useful information on the macro- and micro-physical properties of the plumes, but these observations are sparse, especially in regions which are at risk of intense bushfire events. Satellite observations of extreme BB events provide a unique perspective, with the newest generation of geostationary imagers, such as the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI), observing entire continents at moderate spatial and high temporal resolution. However, current passive satellite retrieval methods struggle to capture the high values of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) seen during these BB events. Accurate retrievals are necessary for global and regional studies of shortwave radiation, air quality modelling and numerical weather prediction. To address these issues, the Optimal Retrieval of Aerosol and Cloud (ORAC) algorithm has used AHI data to measure extreme BB plumes from the 2019–2020 Australian bushfire season. The sensitivity of the retrieval to the assumed optical properties of BB plumes is explored by comparing retrieved AOT with AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) level-1.5 data over the AERONET site at Tumbarumba, New South Wales, between 1 December 2019 at 00:00 UTC and 3 January 2020 at 00:00 UTC. The study shows that for AOT values > 2, the sensitivity to the assumed optical properties is substantial. The ORAC retrievals and AERONET data are compared against the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Aerosol Retrieval Product (ARP), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Deep Blue over land, MODIS MAIAC, Sentinel-3 SYN and VIIRS Deep Blue products. The comparison shows the ORAC retrieval significantly improves coverage of optically thick plumes relative to the JAXA ARP, with approximately twice as many pixels retrieved and peak retrieved AOT values 1.4 times higher than the JAXA ARP. ...
format Text
author Robbins, Daniel Jamie Victor
Poulsen, Caroline
Siems, Steven
Proud, Simon
Prata, Andrew
Grainger, Roy
Povey, Adam
spellingShingle Robbins, Daniel Jamie Victor
Poulsen, Caroline
Siems, Steven
Proud, Simon
Prata, Andrew
Grainger, Roy
Povey, Adam
Geostationary aerosol retrievals of extreme biomass burning plumes during the 2019–20 Australian bushfires
author_facet Robbins, Daniel Jamie Victor
Poulsen, Caroline
Siems, Steven
Proud, Simon
Prata, Andrew
Grainger, Roy
Povey, Adam
author_sort Robbins, Daniel Jamie Victor
title Geostationary aerosol retrievals of extreme biomass burning plumes during the 2019–20 Australian bushfires
title_short Geostationary aerosol retrievals of extreme biomass burning plumes during the 2019–20 Australian bushfires
title_full Geostationary aerosol retrievals of extreme biomass burning plumes during the 2019–20 Australian bushfires
title_fullStr Geostationary aerosol retrievals of extreme biomass burning plumes during the 2019–20 Australian bushfires
title_full_unstemmed Geostationary aerosol retrievals of extreme biomass burning plumes during the 2019–20 Australian bushfires
title_sort geostationary aerosol retrievals of extreme biomass burning plumes during the 2019–20 australian bushfires
publishDate 2024
url https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2179
https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-2179/
genre Aerosol Robotic Network
genre_facet Aerosol Robotic Network
op_source eISSN:
op_relation doi:10.5194/egusphere-2023-2179
https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-2179/
op_doi https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2179
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