A new robust wildfire emissions analysis from a ground-level mobile lab

Results from the ground-based lab can be compared with those from aircraft. Credit: NASA

Scientists explored how wildfires in the Western US release pollutants into the air in a new study supported by the Climate Program Office’s Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle and Climate (AC4) Program. AC4 funded this project as a contribution to the joint NOAA- and NASA-led FIREX-AQ (Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality 2019) field campaigns. Supported researcher Scott Herndon of Aerodyne Research Inc. and a team of scientists measured and analyzed emissions from three specific 2019 fires in the Western U.S. using a special set of instruments on wheels called the Aerodyne Mobile Laboratory. The mobile lab is advantageous because at ground level, it can often measure emissions closer to the fire source and can be used at night when it is often unsafe to fly an aircraft near a wildfire.