Biomass burning is a large and uncontrolled emission of reactive gas phase species and aerosol with major impacts on air quality and climate. 听Particularly in the western U.S., the combination of past fire suppression activities and climate change has led to increased wildfire frequency and area burned in recent decades. 听The 2019 combined NASA - NOAA 听utilized a suite of aircraft to characterize the emissions, transport and atmospheric chemistry of biomass burning emissions. 听
The NASA DC-8 flew with an extremely comprehensive payload out of Boise, Idaho to study western wildfires and Salina, Kansas to study agricultural fires in the eastern U.S. 听Our group will deployed the airborne cavity enhanced spectrometer (ACES) for measurements of glyoxal, methyl glyoxal and nitrogen dioxide.
The NOAA Twin Otter is a light aircraft based in Boise, Idaho and Cedar City, Utah听for detailed investigations of western wildfires. 听Its more targeted payload to investigated photochemistry, nighttime chemistry and aerosol optical properties in biomass burning plumes. 听Our group听lead the deployment of this aircraft.