AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Estimating Smoke Exposure Concentrations in Fort Collins, CO from Local and Transported Wildfire Plumes
BONNE FORD, Jeffrey R. Pierce, William Lassman, Gabriele Pfister, Emily Fischer, Colorado State University
Abstract Number: 662 Working Group: Aerosol Exposure
Abstract Smoke from wildfires can lead to significantly degraded air quality in the western United States and the exposure to high concentrations of particulate matter (PM) poses a growing threat to human health. Smoke plumes from the local High Park fire in June 2012 and transported smoke from fires in western Canada in July 2015 both produced surface concentrations over 150 microgram m$^(-3) in Fort Collins, CO. Predicting and managing smoke exposure during these events is a challenge due to the episodic nature of wildfires and the potentially sharp concentration gradients within smoke plumes. In this study, we use the Weather Research and Forecasting model with online chemistry (WRF-Chem) output to estimate smoke concentrations in Fort Collins, CO associated with both concentrated plumes from a nearby wildfire (High Park) and diluted plumes from wildfires in western Canada. We validate these results against surface and satellite observations and discuss different model sensitivities and how they impact smoke forecasts for these two cases.