Measurements of Trace Gas Emissions from Australian Forest Fires and Correlations with Coincident Measurements of Aerosol Optical Depth

Authors

Clare Paton-Walsh, University of WollongongFollow
N. B. Jones, University of WollongongFollow
Stephen R. Wilson, University of WollongongFollow
V Haverd, University of WollongongFollow
A. Meier, University of Wollongong
D. W. Griffith, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

12675

Publication Details

An edited version of this paper was published by the American Geophysical Uniion as Paton-Walsh, C, Jones, NB, Wilson, SR, Haverd, V, Meier, A and Griffith, DWT, Measurements of Trace Gas Emissions from Australian Forest Fires and Correlations with Coincident Measurements of Aerosol Optical Depth, Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, 110, 23 December 2005, D24. Copyright 2005 American Geophysical Union. Original article available here.

Abstract

We present vertically integrated measurements of C2H2, C2H4, C2H6, HCOOH, CO, H2CO, HCN and NH3 through smoke plumes from Australian forest fires measured by ground-based solar absorption spectroscopy. The column amounts of these gases are highly correlated with simultaneous, co-located measurements of aerosol optical depth, providing a potential method of mapping biomass-burning emissions using satellite measurements of aerosol optical depth. We have calculated emission ratios relative to CO for the trace gases using aerosol optical depth as a proxy for CO and converted to emission factors by using an average emission factor for CO from literature measurements of extra-tropical forest fires. The results show that Australian forest fire emissions are broadly similar to those from other geographical regions except for comparatively low emissions of C2H6.