Forest Fire Air Pollution in the Western U.S

Fires emit significant amounts of gases and particles to the atmosphere. As these emissions are transformed and transported through the atmosphere, the results can lead to detrimental impacts on air quality. Transport of smoke emissions into vulnerable communities both near and distant to fire locations could have negative health consequences. Further, as climate changes, particularly across the western U.S., fire frequency has been increasing, thus leading to degraded air quality. An emissions model has been developed to estimate the amount and timing of fire emissions. The estimates are used as inputs to models that simulate the atmospheric transport and chemistry of the fire emissions. This presentation will describe the emission estimates from fires and the results of air quality model simulations that use the emission estimates. Specific examples of air quality impacts from wildfires in California will be shown and implications of climate impacts discussed.