1. Maria Val Martin and J. Logan (Harvard Univ., USA) D. Nelson, C. Ichoku, R. Kahn and D. Diner (NASA, USA) S. Freitas (INPE, Brazil) F.-Y. Leung (Washington State Univ., USA) Research funded by NSF and EPA Wildfire Plume Injection Heights Over North America: An Analysis of MISR, MODIS and a 1-D Plume-rise Model

2. Outline An statistical analysis of aerosol injection heights over North America The use of a 1-D plume-rise model to develop a parameterization of the injection heights of North American wildfire emissions Wildfire Plume Injection Heights Over North America: An Analysis of MISR, MODIS and a 1-D Plume-rise Model

3. Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer- MISR 9 view angles at Earth surface: nadir to 70.5º forward and backward 4 bands at each angle: 446, 558, 672, 866 nm Continuous pole-to-pole coverage on orbit dayside 400-km swath 9 day coverage at equator 2 day coverage at poles Overpass around local noon time in high and mid- latitudes 275 m - 1.1 km sampling In polar orbit aboard Terra since December 1999

4. MISR Plumes: MISR INteractive eXplorer (MINX) http://www.openchannelsoftware.org Smoke plume over central Alaska on June 2002 Cross-section of heights as a function of distance from the source Histogram of heights retrieved by MINX

5. About 3500 plumes digitalized over North America 2002 2004 2005 2006 2007 http://www-misr2.jpl.nasa.gov/EPA-Plumes/

6. Plume Distribution, Atmospheric Conditions and Fire Properties Meteorological fields from GEOS-4 and GEOS-5 2x2.5 Fire Properties from MODIS Fire Radiative Power Histogram of Plume Height Retrievals Atmospheric Stability Profile Max Avg Median Mode Plume Height? Each individual height Stable Layer Boundary Layer (BL) Leung et at, Poster B31C-0302

7. 5-30% smoke emissions are injected above the boundary layer Kahn et al, [2008] Distribution of MISR heights-PBL for smoke plumes 2004 2002 10–25% 2005 4–15% 2006 9–28% 2007 9–18% Val Martin et al, in preparation

8. Tropical Forest Cropland Temperate Forest Boreal Forest Boreal Shrub Non-Boreal Shrub Boreal Grassland Non-Boreal Grassland Vegetation type based on MODIS IGBP land cover map (http://modis-land.gsfc.nasa.gov/landcover.htm) 1x1 km resolution Classification of plume distribution by vegetation type

9. Percentage of smoke above BL varies with vegetation type and fire season 2002 2004 2005 2006 2007 % Height retrievals with [Height-PBL] > 0.5 km Number of plumes

10. Close relationship between plume distribution, fire intensity and fire size Plume Height versus Fire Intensity Plume Height versus Fire Size

11. Fire intensity drives the interannual variability of plume heights 2002 2004 2005 2006 2007 Distribution of MISR heights and MODIS FRP by year 200

12. Also, fire intensity drives the seasonality of plume heights Boreal Forest 2002 and 2004-2007

13. 1-D Plume-resolving Model Detailed information in Freitas et al, [2007] Key input parameters: Instant fire size: MODIS FRP (max FRP observed in each biome  1 km 2 burned [Charles Ichoku, personal communication]) Total heat flux: Max MODIS FRP observed over vegetation type x 10 [Wooster et al, 2005; Freeborn et al., 2008] RH, T, P, wind speed and direction: from GEOS- 4 meteo fields 2x2.5 Fuel moisture content: from the Canadian Fire Weather Model

14. Simulation of a boreal fire plume in Alaska and a grassland fire plume in Mexico Fire Size= 300 Ha Heat Flux= 18 kW/m 2 Fire Size= 3.3 Ha Heat Flux= 9 kW/m 2 MISR Retrieved Heights MISR Smoke Plume 1D Plume-rise Model Boreal Forest Fire Grassland Fire

15. Simulation of a boreal fire plume in Alaska and a grassland fire plume in Mexico Fire Size= 300 Ha Heat Flux= 18 kW/m 2 Fire Size= 3.3 Ha Heat Flux= 9 kW/m 2 MISR Retrieved Heights MISR Smoke Plume 1D Plume-rise Model Boreal Forest Fire Grassland Fire 5025 m5425 m 1200 m 900 m

16. The 1-D Plume-resolving Model simulates fairly well the observed MISR heights Correlation between simulated plume heights and MISR observed heights over North America All Plumes

17.  5-30% of smoke emissions are injected above the BL.  The percentage of smoke that reaches the FT depends on fire characteristics (e.g., vegetation type, fire intensity, etc) and year-to-year variations.  Fire intensity drives the seasonality and interannual variability of the plume heights.  1-D plume-resolving model simulates fairly well the observed MISR plume heights.  In the future, we plan to embed the 1-D plume-resolving model with GEOS-Chem to simulate vertical transport of North American wildfire emissions. Concluding Remarks

18. Extra Slides

19. The 1-D Plume-resolving Model simulates fairly well the observed MISR heights Correlation between simulated plume heights and MISR observed heights over North America Boreal Forest Plumes

20. The 1-D Plume-resolving Model simulates fairly well the observed MISR heights Correlation between simulated plume heights and MISR observed heights over North America Temperate Forest Plumes

21. Model simulated heights versus MISR observed heights by year

22. Model simulated heights versus MISR observed heights by vegetation

23. Smoke emissions tend to get confined within stable layers in the atmosphere, when they exist 11% 13% 7% 24% 13% Distribution of all individual heights in the FT – Stable Layer MISR Height – Stable Layer Height ≈ 0 km

24. Relationship between simulated heights and 1-D model input parameters

25. The 1D plume-resolving model: Governing equations dynamics thermodynamics water vapor conservation bulk microphysics cloud water conservation rain/ice conservation

26. The 1D plume-resolving model: The lower boundary conditions

27. Intensity of the fire drives the interannual variability of plume heights

28. Also, fire intensity drives the seasonality of plume heights Trop Forest

29. Also, fire intensity drives the seasonality of plume heights Temperate Forest

30. Also, fire intensity drives the seasonality of plume heights Boreal Shrub

31. Also, fire intensity drives the seasonality of plume heights Boreal Grassland

32. Also, fire intensity drives the seasonality of plume heights NonBoreal Grassland

33. Also, fire intensity drives the seasonality of plume heights Cropland