(748f) Investigating Wildfire Smoke Plume Transport in the Western U.S. Using Satellite Remote Sensing and Atmospheric Models

In recent decades, there has been a significant increase in both the size and number of wildfires in the western U.S. The mountains create complex atmospheric flows that lead to terrain-induced wildfires from dry, downslope winds, especially during drought conditions. Wildfire smoke plumes can be transported several hundreds of miles downwind, adversely impacting populations living near or downwind of the fires. To investigate the health outcomes associated with smoke exposure and implement warning systems to protect public health the spatiotemporal distribution of smoke plume concentrations is required. Air quality monitors do not specifically quantify air pollution concentrations from smoke plumes because the measurements are for the total ambient air pollution concentrations (i.e., all air pollution sources). The monitoring data can be supplemented with information from satellite remote sensing products, wildfire emissions inventories, dispersion models, and chemical transport models to characterize the increase in air pollution concentrations due to wildfire smoke. Many of these tools have uncertainties in the western U.S. because of the mountainous terrain, elevation changes, heterogeneous land surface, and/or aerosol mixtures associated with unique air pollution sources. Results of ongoing air quality modeling efforts to estimate and forecast wildfire smoke plume transport in the western U.S will be presented. Including recent advancements in modeling smoke plume injection height and use of satellite remote sensing products to investigate fire behavior and smoke plume transport.