Investigating the vertical extent of the 2023 summer Canadian wildfire impacts with satellite observations
Pyrocumulonimbus clouds (pyroCbs) generated by intense wildfires can serve as a direct pathway for the injection of aerosols and gaseous pollutants into the lower stratosphere, resulting in significant chemical, radiative, and dynamical changes. Canada experienced an extremely severe wildfire season...
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ftnonlinearchiv:oai:noa.gwlb.de:cop_mods_00072014 2024-04-14T08:21:01+00:00 Investigating the vertical extent of the 2023 summer Canadian wildfire impacts with satellite observations Zhang, Selena Solomon, Susan Boone, Chris D. Taha, Ghassan 2024-02 electronic https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-353 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00072014 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00070248/egusphere-2024-353.pdf https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2024/egusphere-2024-353/egusphere-2024-353.pdf eng eng Copernicus Publications https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-353 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00072014 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00070248/egusphere-2024-353.pdf https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2024/egusphere-2024-353/egusphere-2024-353.pdf https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article Verlagsveröffentlichung article Text doc-type:article 2024 ftnonlinearchiv https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-353 2024-03-19T12:18:16Z Pyrocumulonimbus clouds (pyroCbs) generated by intense wildfires can serve as a direct pathway for the injection of aerosols and gaseous pollutants into the lower stratosphere, resulting in significant chemical, radiative, and dynamical changes. Canada experienced an extremely severe wildfire season in 2023, with a total area burned that substantially exceeded those of previous events known to have impacted the stratosphere (such as the 2020 Australian fires). This season also had record-high pyroCb activity, which raises the question of whether the 2023 Canadian event resulted in significant stratospheric perturbations. Here, we investigate this anomalous wildfire season using retrievals from two satellite instruments, ACE-FTS (Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment – Fourier Transform Spectrometer) and OMPS LP (Ozone Mapping and Profile Suite Limb Profiler), to determine the vertical extents of the wildfire smoke along with chemical signatures of biomass burning. These data show that smoke primarily reached the upper troposphere but only a nominal amount managed to penetrate the tropopause. Only one ACE-FTS occultation captured elevated concentrations of biomass burning products in the lower stratosphere on July 30th, and back and forward trajectories place the source fire in the Yukon. However, OMPS LP aerosol measurements indicate that any smoke that made it past the tropopause did not last long enough to significantly perturb stratospheric composition. While this work focuses on Canadian wildfires given the extensive burned area, pyroCbs at other longitudes (e.g. Siberia) are also captured in the compositional analysis. These results highlight that despite the formation of many pyroCbs in major wildfires, those capable of penetrating the tropopause are extremely rare; this in turn means that even a massive area burned is not necessarily an indicator of stratospheric effects. Article in Journal/Newspaper Siberia Yukon Niedersächsisches Online-Archiv NOA Canada Yukon |
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ftnonlinearchiv |
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English |
topic |
article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
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article Verlagsveröffentlichung Zhang, Selena Solomon, Susan Boone, Chris D. Taha, Ghassan Investigating the vertical extent of the 2023 summer Canadian wildfire impacts with satellite observations |
topic_facet |
article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
description |
Pyrocumulonimbus clouds (pyroCbs) generated by intense wildfires can serve as a direct pathway for the injection of aerosols and gaseous pollutants into the lower stratosphere, resulting in significant chemical, radiative, and dynamical changes. Canada experienced an extremely severe wildfire season in 2023, with a total area burned that substantially exceeded those of previous events known to have impacted the stratosphere (such as the 2020 Australian fires). This season also had record-high pyroCb activity, which raises the question of whether the 2023 Canadian event resulted in significant stratospheric perturbations. Here, we investigate this anomalous wildfire season using retrievals from two satellite instruments, ACE-FTS (Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment – Fourier Transform Spectrometer) and OMPS LP (Ozone Mapping and Profile Suite Limb Profiler), to determine the vertical extents of the wildfire smoke along with chemical signatures of biomass burning. These data show that smoke primarily reached the upper troposphere but only a nominal amount managed to penetrate the tropopause. Only one ACE-FTS occultation captured elevated concentrations of biomass burning products in the lower stratosphere on July 30th, and back and forward trajectories place the source fire in the Yukon. However, OMPS LP aerosol measurements indicate that any smoke that made it past the tropopause did not last long enough to significantly perturb stratospheric composition. While this work focuses on Canadian wildfires given the extensive burned area, pyroCbs at other longitudes (e.g. Siberia) are also captured in the compositional analysis. These results highlight that despite the formation of many pyroCbs in major wildfires, those capable of penetrating the tropopause are extremely rare; this in turn means that even a massive area burned is not necessarily an indicator of stratospheric effects. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Zhang, Selena Solomon, Susan Boone, Chris D. Taha, Ghassan |
author_facet |
Zhang, Selena Solomon, Susan Boone, Chris D. Taha, Ghassan |
author_sort |
Zhang, Selena |
title |
Investigating the vertical extent of the 2023 summer Canadian wildfire impacts with satellite observations |
title_short |
Investigating the vertical extent of the 2023 summer Canadian wildfire impacts with satellite observations |
title_full |
Investigating the vertical extent of the 2023 summer Canadian wildfire impacts with satellite observations |
title_fullStr |
Investigating the vertical extent of the 2023 summer Canadian wildfire impacts with satellite observations |
title_full_unstemmed |
Investigating the vertical extent of the 2023 summer Canadian wildfire impacts with satellite observations |
title_sort |
investigating the vertical extent of the 2023 summer canadian wildfire impacts with satellite observations |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-353 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00072014 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00070248/egusphere-2024-353.pdf https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2024/egusphere-2024-353/egusphere-2024-353.pdf |
geographic |
Canada Yukon |
geographic_facet |
Canada Yukon |
genre |
Siberia Yukon |
genre_facet |
Siberia Yukon |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-353 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00072014 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00070248/egusphere-2024-353.pdf https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2024/egusphere-2024-353/egusphere-2024-353.pdf |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-353 |
_version_ |
1796299439722201088 |