Trace Gas Emissions from Biomass Burning inferred from Aerosol Optical Depth

Authors

Clare Paton-Walsh, University of WollongongFollow
N. B. Jones, University of WollongongFollow
Stephen R. Wilson, University of WollongongFollow
A. Meier, University of Wollongong
N. Deutscher, University of Wollongong
D. W. Griffith, University of WollongongFollow
R. Mitchell, CSIRO, Australia
S. Campbell, CSIRO, Australia

RIS ID

11630

Publication Details

An edited version of this paper was published by the American Geophysical Uniion as Paton-Walsh, C, Jones, NB, Wilson, SR, Meier, A and Griffith, DWT, Trace Gas Emissions from Biomass Burning inferred from Aerosol Optical Depth, Geophysical Research Letters, 31(5), 2004. Copyright 2004 American Geophysical Union. Original article available here.

Abstract

We have observed strong correlations between simultaneous and co-located measurements of aerosol optical depth and column amounts of carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde and ammonia in bushfire smoke plumes over SE Australia during the Austral summers of 2001/2002 and 2002/2003. We show how satellite-derived aerosol optical depth maps may be used in conjunction with these correlations to determine the total amounts of these gases present in a fire-affected region. This provides the basis of a method for estimating total emissions of trace gases from biomass burning episodes using visible radiances measured by satellite.