P14     Emissions, transport, and chemistry of smoke from Western U.S. wildfires.

Bela, Megan M., University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Earth System Research Laboratory Chemical Sciences Division (NOAA-ESRL-CSD), Natalie Kille, CU Boulder Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Stuart A. McKeen, Ravan Ahmadov, CIRES and NOAA-ESRL-CSD, Gabriel Pereira, Federal University of São João del-Rei, Brazil, Chris Schmidt, NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), R. Bradley Pierce, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Susan M. O'Neill, United States Forest Service, Xiaoyang Zhang, South Dakota State University, Shobha Kondragunta, NESDIS, Christine Wiedinmyer, CIRES, and Rainer Volkamer, CU Boulder Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Air quality forecasts using regional chemical models provide key information for affected communities and smoke management efforts, yet many models fail to accurately predict ozone (O3) and particulate matter levels during fire events. The satellite-based emissions and plume rise are large sources of model uncertainty. To improve emissions and plume rise parameterizations, we utilize aircraft and ground-based data from recent field campaigns, such as the 2016 NOAA Fire Influence on Regional and Global Environments Experiment (FIREX) Fire Lab study, and the 2018 NSF/CU Biomass Burning Fluxes of Trace Gases and Aerosols using SOF on the Wyoming King Air (BB-FLUX) and NSF/CSU Western wildfire Experiment for Cloud chemistry, Aerosol absorption and Nitrogen (WE-CAN) field campaigns. Hourly fire emissions based on Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-16/17 fire radiative power are implemented in WRF-Chem. Emission factors (EFs) are updated from estimates from FIREX Fire Lab and BBFLUX/WE-CAN field observations, and separate EFs are implemented for flaming and smoldering combustion. Plume injection heights in the model are evaluated with aircraft- and satellite-based estimates. WRF-Chem simulations are also compared with satellite retrievals of trace gases and aerosols, and are used to quantify fire air quality impacts and examine formation mechanisms for O3 and SOA.