New research revealed that tiny, sunlight-absorbing particles in wildfire smoke may have less impact on climate than widely hypothesized because reactions as the plume mixes with clean air reduce its absorbing power and climate-warming effect. In a unique megafire study, a Los Alamos National Laboratory-led research team studied the properties of smoke from Arizona’s massive Woodbury Fire last summer using a powerful set of observing techniques.
“These observations may be useful for those trying to represent organic light absorbing aerosols, or brown carbon, in climate models by identifying how they age, as well as understanding processes affecting how strongly they absorb light and cause warming,” said James Lee, lead author on a paper released in JGR: Atmospheres this week and a Los Alamos postdoctoral researcher.
The Woodbury Fire burned nearly 124,000 acres for more than a month before it was contained. With powerful instruments including an aerosol mass spectrometer at Los Alamos’ Center for Aerosol Forensic Experiments (CAFÉ), researchers from Los Alamos and New Mexico Tech measured the chemical, physical, and optical properties of ambient aerosol and trace gas concentrations in four large plumes in real time. The team found that the composition of the plumes as well as aerosol properties within the plumes are more varied than expected. More oxidation of smoke lowers its sunlight absorbing potential and lessens its climatic impact.
Read more at DOE / Los Alamos National Laboratory