slow winds and colder temperatures) help trap pollutants near the surface in north India, where the flat terrain is surrounded by the Himalayas. During the post-monsoon, meteorology (e.g. New Delhi, a mega-city already suffering from heavy local pollution, is located downwind of these seasonal agricultural fires. Every year, the burning of rice residue from October to November contributes to thick haze over the region. Although crop residue burning is just one of many pollution sources, it is highly episodic and seasonal. However, crop residue burning releases a suite of pernicious gases and aerosols into the atmosphere that degrades both rural and urban air quality. The prevailing, cost-effective method is to burn the crop residues. In addition, the use of combine harvesters, which saves time and decreases labor costs, leaves behind abundant root-bound residues that are difficult to remove manually. The short turnaround between harvest and sowing pressures farmers to quickly remove crop residue from the field to prepare for the next planting. In northwestern India, the double crop system alternates between the monsoon crop (kharif, predominantly rice) and winter crop (rabi, predominantly wheat). Primary Collaborators: Jim Randerson (UCI), Yang Chen (UCI), Loretta Mickley (Harvard), Makoto Kelp (Harvard), Drew Pendergrass (Harvard)Īgricultural Fires and Air Quality Degradation in Northwestern India With better estimates of the diurnal cycle of fire growth, we will investigate the meteorological and active fire suppression controls on fire spread. Second, we are using the GOES-16 and GOES-17 geostationary satellites to map the spatio-temporal progression of large wildfires on an hourly basis. To investigate how accurately HMS reflects surface conditions, we are comparing HMS with airport observations. For example, HMS may indicate aloft smoke that does not affect surface air quality, particularly within polygons categorized as light density.
While the HMS smoke product is increasingly used in public health and air pollution studies, the dataset is subject to caveats. We found that wildfires in CA, OR, and WA in 2020 exacerbated short-term exposure to smoke particulate matter and the severity of COVID-19 pandemic (Zhou et al., 2021). The HMS smoke product contains polygons drawn by NOAA analysts who delineate smoke from non-smoke areas using primarily GOES satellite imagery. First, we are using NOAA's Hazard Mapping System (HMS) smoke product as an indicator of fire-related smoke. In current work, we are tackling research on western U.S. Against the backdrop of a warming climate and recent droughts, the buildup of fuels from the legacy of federal active fire suppression in the 1900s led to larger and more severe wildfires in recent decades. Severe fire seasons in 2018, 2020, and 2021 have underscored the increasing vulnerability of the western United States to wildfires, which deteriorate public health, disrupt livelihoods, and damage infrastructure. Wildfires and Smoke in the Western United States
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