Nitrogen oxides and PAN in plumes from boreal fires during ARCTAS-B and their impact on ozone: An integrated analysis of aircraft and satellite observations

We determine enhancement ratios for NOx, PAN, and other NOy species from boreal biomass burning using aircraft data obtained during the ARCTAS-B campaign and examine the impact of these emissions on tropospheric ozone in the Arctic. We find an initial emission factor for NOx of 1.06 g NO per kg dry matter (DM) burned, much lower than previous observations of boreal plumes, and also one third the value recommended for extratropical fires. Our analysis provides the first observational confirmation of rapid PAN formation in a boreal smoke plume, with 40% of the initial NOx emissions being converted to PAN in the first few hours after emission. We find little clear evidence for ozone formation in the boreal smoke plumes during ARCTAS-B in either aircraft or satellite observations, or in model simulations. Only a third of the smoke plumes observed by the NASA DC8 showed a correlation between ozone and CO, and ozone was depleted in the plumes as often as it was enhanced. Special observations from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) also show little evidence for enhanced ozone in boreal smoke plumes between 15 June and 15 July 2008. Of the 22 plumes observed by TES, only 4 showed ozone increasing within the smoke plumes, and even in those cases it was unclear that the increase was caused by fire emissions. Using the GEOS-Chem atmospheric chemistry model, we show that boreal fires during ARCTAS-B had little impact on the median ozone profile measured over Canada, and had little impact on ozone within the smoke plumes observed by TES.

To Access Resource:

Questions? Email Resource Support Contact:

  • opensky@ucar.edu
    UCAR/NCAR - Library

Resource Type publication
Temporal Range Begin N/A
Temporal Range End N/A
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat N/A
Bounding Box South Lat N/A
Bounding Box West Long N/A
Bounding Box East Long N/A
Spatial Representation N/A
Spatial Resolution N/A
Related Links N/A
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format PDF
Standardized Resource Format PDF
Asset Size N/A
Legal Constraints

Copyright Author(s) 2010. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name N/A
Resource Support Email opensky@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library
Distributor N/A
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email opensky@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library

Author Alvarado, M.
Logan, J.
Mao, J.
Apel, Eric
Riemer, D.
Blake, D.
Cohen, R.
Min, K-E
Perring, A.
Browne, E.
Wooldridge, P.
Diskin, G.
Sachse, G.
Fuelberg, H.
Sessions, W.
Harrigan, D.
Huey, G.
Liao, J.
Case-Hanks, A.
Jimenez, J.
Cubison, M.
Vay, S.
Weinheimer, Andrew
Knapp, David
Montzka, Denise
Flocke, Frank
Pollack, Ilana
Wennberg, P.
Kurten, A.
Crounse, J.
St. Clair, J.
Wisthaler, A.
Mikoviny, T.
Yantosca, R.
Carouge, C.
Le Sager, P.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2010-10-18T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
Progress N/A
Metadata Date 2023-08-18T18:44:36.694733
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:10358
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Alvarado, M., Logan, J., Mao, J., Apel, Eric, Riemer, D., Blake, D., Cohen, R., Min, K-E, Perring, A., Browne, E., Wooldridge, P., Diskin, G., Sachse, G., Fuelberg, H., Sessions, W., Harrigan, D., Huey, G., Liao, J., Case-Hanks, A., Jimenez, J., Cubison, M., Vay, S., Weinheimer, Andrew, Knapp, David, Montzka, Denise, Flocke, Frank, Pollack, Ilana, Wennberg, P., Kurten, A., Crounse, J., St. Clair, J., Wisthaler, A., Mikoviny, T., Yantosca, R., Carouge, C., Le Sager, P.. (2010). Nitrogen oxides and PAN in plumes from boreal fires during ARCTAS-B and their impact on ozone: An integrated analysis of aircraft and satellite observations. UCAR/NCAR - Library. http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7736rcn. Accessed 18 July 2025.

Harvest Source