Large VOC enhancements in recent massive wildfires observed from space

• Main Authors: Franco, Bruno, Clarisse, Lieven, Hadji-Lazaro, Juliette, Hurtmans, Daniel, Lecomte, Gilles, Turquety, Solène, Clerbaux, Cathy, Coheur, Pierre-François
• Other Authors: Spectroscopy, Quantum Chemistry and Atmospheric Remote Sensing (SQUARES), Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), TROPO - LATMOS, Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris, École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-AO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Subarctic
• Online Access: https://insu.hal.science/insu-03023591; https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-20243

International audience Massive wildfires erupted in Amazonia and through the subarctic region in summer 2019, and in Australia in winter 2019-2020. During such biomass burning events, sizeable amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be emitted directly by the fires as well as rapidly produced in plumes via the degradation of short-lived gas precursors. The VOCs have a significant impact on tropospheric chemistry by, e.g., affecting the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere. Nadir-viewing infrared sensors onboard meteorological satellites provide global and spatially dense observations that are very useful to track biomass burning events throughout the globe and to provide trace gas quantification in fire plumes.We apply a general retrieval framework, based on an artificial neural network, to derive the integrated abundance (total column) of several major VOCs from the infrared radiance spectra recorded by IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer) embarked on the Metop platforms. Quasi-global distributions of methanol (CH3OH), formic (HCOOH) and acetic (CH3COOH) acids, PAN, acetone (CH3COCH3), acetylene (C2H2) and hydrogen cyanide (HCN) column abundance are produced twice-daily from the a.m. and p.m. overpasses of the satellite instrument. In particular, we use the IASI data to produce daily regional snapshots over biomass burning areas of interest and to quantify the VOC enhancements in the plumes from the recent Amazonian, Australian and subarctic wildfires. Finally, the abundance ratios of these VOC