Aerosols carried in wildfire smoke plumes that are hundreds of hours old can still affect climate, according to a study out of the University of California, Davis.
Aerosols carried in wildfire smoke plumes that are hundreds of hours old can still affect climate, according to a study out of the University of California, Davis.
The research, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, suggests that wildfire emissions even 10 days old can affect the properties of aerosols — suspended liquid or particles that are key to cloud formation.
Research in aerosols and particulate matter pollution related to wildfires has most often focused on the early hours of smoke plumes, not several days later after smoke has traveled to other areas.
This research helps fill in a knowledge gap and can inform future predictions about the climate and atmospheric effects of wildfire over the lifetime of aerosols, particularly in rural or pristine areas with relatively clean air, said Qi Zhang, an environmental toxicology professor and lead author of the study.
“These parameters are really useful for atmospheric and chemical models,” she said. “It’s a really important component to solving the effects on climate. To capture those characteristics is super critical.”
Zhang, Ph.D. student Ryan Farley and others spent time in 2019 at the Mount Bachelor Observatory atop a volcanic mountain in Oregon. That year was relatively calm in terms of wildfire, but smoke plumes and aerosols were still observed. Some were at least 10 days old and came from as close as Northern California and as far as Siberia, Russia.
Read more at: University of California - Davis
Photo Credit: valtercirollo via Pixabay
