Multisensor Observations Of The Long-Range Transport Of Three Large Forest Fires Plumes To The Northeastern U.S.

摘要

Three large forest fires plumes, one from Russia, one from California, and one from Alaska/Yukon were observed in 2003 and 2004 over the east coast of the US using a wide suite of instruments including lidar on the ground, GLAS, MODIS, TOMS, AERONET and GOES-8. For the Russian fire plume, the smoke arrived in US mid-Atlantic states at a height of 3km. This same plume was seen in Europe at much higher altitudes. The California fires were higher (5.5-7.5 km). The final fire plume from the northwestern part of NA (at 3-7 km) was noted on the USAirQuality weblog well in advance of its arrival in the US East. The coincident observation by several lidar systems is a good example of REALM observational capability. The heights of the plumes shows features of vertical plume transport which are governed by the shape of the isentropic surfaces north and south of the polar front.