Satellite measurements of large-scale air pollution: Measurements of forest fire smoke

Journal Article · Wed Jun 20 00:00:00 EDT 1990 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/JD095iD07p09911· OSTI ID:5330895

Ferrare, R A; Fraser, R S; Kaufman, Y J ^[1]

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1. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (USA)

The transport, optical properties, total mass, and removal of smoke produced by forest fires in western Canada during late July and early August 1982 are studied using NOAA 7 Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data. Color composite imagery is produced to track the movement of the smoke over Canada and the United States as the smoke traveled thousands of kilometers from the source region. Smoke optical thickness, particle size, and single scattering albedo (ratio of particle scattering to extinction) are computed using radiances measured by AVHRR bands 1 (0.58-0.68 {mu}m) and 2 (0.72-1.10 {mu}m). Results show that smoke optical thickness ranged from less than 0.1 greater than 3.7 and the geometric mean mass radii ranged from 0.3 to 0.9 {mu}m. The smoke single scattering albedo ranged from 0.9 to nearly 1.0. The total smoke mass over the eastern United States, computed using the derived particle size and optical thickness, ranged from 0.1 to 0.5 Tg which is close to the 0.5 Tg estimated to have been produced by the fires based on the forest fuel content. The smoke lifetime is estimated to be between 15 and 20 days.

• OSTI ID: 5330895
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Vol. 95:D7; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
RADIOMETERS
PERFORMANCE
SMOKES
AIR POLLUTION MONITORING
AEROSOLS
ALBEDO
CANADA
FIRES
FORESTS
LONG-RANGE TRANSPORT
OPACITY
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PARTICLE SIZE
REMOTE SENSING
SATELLITES
USA
COLLOIDS
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
DISPERSIONS
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
MASS TRANSFER
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MONITORING
NORTH AMERICA
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RADIATION DETECTORS
RESIDUES
SIZE
SOLS
540120* - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)