A newly developed Lagrangian chemical transport scheme: Part 1. Simulation of a boreal forest fire plume

Yayong Liu; Yufei Huang; John Liggio; Katherine Hayden; Cris Mihele; Jeremy Wentzell; Michael Wheeler; Amy Leithead; Samar Moussa; Conghui Xie; Yanrong Yang; Yuheng Zhang; Tianran Han; Shao-Meng Li

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163232

A newly developed Lagrangian chemical transport scheme: Part 1. Simulation of a boreal forest fire plume

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Jul 1:880:163232. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163232. Epub 2023 Apr 4.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China 100871.
² Air Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario M3H 5T4, Canada.
³ State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China 100871. Electronic address: shaomeng.li@pku.edu.cn.

PMID: 37023817
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163232

Abstract

Forest fire research over the last several decades has improved the understanding of fire emissions and impacts. Nevertheless, the evolution of forest fire plumes remains poorly quantified and understood. Here, a Lagrangian chemical transport model, the Forward Atmospheric Stochastic Transport model coupled with the Master Chemical Mechanism (FAST-MCM), has been developed to simulate the transport and chemical transformations of plumes from a boreal forest fire over several hours since their emission. The model results for NOx (NO and NO₂), O₃, HONO, HNO₃, pNO₃ and 70 VOC species are compared with airborne in-situ measurements within plume centers and their surrounding portions during the transport. Comparisons between simulation results and measurements show that the FAST-MCM model can properly reproduce the physical and chemical evolution of forest fire plumes. The results indicate that the model can be an important tool used to aid the understanding of the downwind impacts of forest fire plumes.

Keywords: Airborne measurements; Boreal forest fire plumes; Eulerian chemical scheme; Lagrangian transport model.