Carbon and aerosols are cycled between terrestrial and atmosphere environments during fire events, and these emissions have strong feedbacks to near-field weather, air quality, and longer-term climate systems. Fire severity and burned area are under the control of weather and climate, and fire emissions have the potential to alter numerous land and atmospheric processes that, in turn, feedback to and interact with climate systems (e.g., changes in patterns of precipitation, black/brown carbon deposition on ice/snow, alteration in landscape and atmospheric/cloud albedo).
NASA satellite data provide a unique spatial view that is not possible with ground-based data. Burned area and active-fire detection are used to for both scientific research and for fire management. Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) data can be used to determine smoke plume injection height. These data paired with the Langley Trajectory Model can provide a global scientific perspective of fire regimes and demonstrate feedbacks to climate systems.
Results/Conclusions
In this talk, we will use satellite data to demonstrate increases in fire severity and fire regimes that have global consequences. We will demonstrate the viability of CALIPSO data to define smoke plume injection height in specific ecoregions and show the daily evolution of smoke plumes over a day. Finally, we will demonstrate the transport of a smoke plume and the resulting black carbon deposition to the Greenland Ice Sheet using a combination of transport modeling and in-situ and satellite data.