Smoke and fire characteristics for cerrado and deforestation burns in Brazil: BASE-B experiment

Journal Article · Sun Sep 20 04:00:00 EDT 1992 · Journal of Geophysical Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/92JD01218· OSTI ID:81156

Ward, D E; Susott, R A; Babbitt, R E ^[1]; Kauffman, J B; Cummings, D L ^[2]; Holben, B N; Kaufman, Y J ^[3]; Setzer, A W ^[4]; Dias, B ^[5]; Rasmussen, R A ^[6]

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1. Intermountain Research Station, Missoula, MT (United States)
2. Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
3. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States)
4. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, Sao Paulo (Brazil)
5. Reserva Ecologica do IBGE, Brasilia (Brazil)
6. Oregon Graduate Institute, Beaverton, OR (United States)

Fires of the tropical forests and savannas are a major source of particulate matter and trace gases affecting the atmosphere globally. A paucity of quantitative information exists for these ecosystems with respect to fuel biomass, smoke emissions, and fire behavior conditions affecting the release of emissions. Five test fires were performed during August and September 1990 in the cerrado (savannalike region) in central Brazil (three fires) and tropical moist forest (two fires) in the eastern Amazon. This paper details the gases released, the ratios of the gases to each other and to particulate matter, fuel loads and the fraction consumed (combustion factors), and the fire behavior associated with biomass consumption. Models are presented for evaluating emission factors for CH{sub 4}, CO{sub 2}, CO, H{sub 2}, and particles less than 2.5 {mu}m diameter (PM2.5) as a function of combustion efficiency. The ratio of carbon released as CO{sub 2} (combustion efficiency) for the cerrado fires averaged 0.94 and for the deforestation fires it decreased from 0.88 for the flaming phase to <0.80 during the smoldering phase of combustion. For tropical ecosystems, emissions of most products of incomplete combustion are projected to be lower than previous estimates for savanna ecosystems and somewhat higher for fires used for deforestation purposes. 59 refs., 9 figs., 10 tabs.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 81156
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research Journal Issue: D13 Vol. 97; ISSN JGREA2; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BRAZIL
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBON MONOXIDE
DEFORESTATION
EMISSION
FIRES
HYDROGEN
METHANE
PARTICULATES
SAVANNAS
SMOKES