Impacts of increasing aridity and wildfires on aerosol loading in the intermountain Western US
(2017) In Environmental Research Letters 12(1).- Abstract
Feedbacks between climate warming, land surface aridity, and wildfire-derived aerosols represent a large source of uncertainty in future climate predictions. Here, long-term observations of aerosol optical depth, surface level aerosol loading, fire-area burned, and hydrologic simulations are used to show that regional-scale increases in aridity and resulting wildfires have significantly increased summertime aerosol loading in remote high elevation regions of the Intermountain West of the United States. Surface summertime organic aerosol loading and total aerosol optical depth were both strongly correlated (p < 0.05) with aridity and fire area burned at high elevation sites across major western US mountain ranges. These results... (More)
Feedbacks between climate warming, land surface aridity, and wildfire-derived aerosols represent a large source of uncertainty in future climate predictions. Here, long-term observations of aerosol optical depth, surface level aerosol loading, fire-area burned, and hydrologic simulations are used to show that regional-scale increases in aridity and resulting wildfires have significantly increased summertime aerosol loading in remote high elevation regions of the Intermountain West of the United States. Surface summertime organic aerosol loading and total aerosol optical depth were both strongly correlated (p < 0.05) with aridity and fire area burned at high elevation sites across major western US mountain ranges. These results demonstrate that surface-level organic aerosol loading is dominated by summertime wildfires at many high elevation sites. This analysis provides new constraints for climate projections on the influence of drought and resulting wildfires on aerosol loading. These empirical observations will help better constrain projected increases in organic aerosol loading with increased fire activity under climate change.
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- author
- Hallar, A. Gannet ; Molotch, Noah P. ; Hand, Jenny L. ; Livneh, Ben ; McCubbin, Ian B. ; Petersen, Ross LU ; Michalsky, Joseph ; Lowenthal, Douglas and Kunkel, Kenneth E.
- publishing date
- 2017-01-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- keywords
- aerosol, aerosol optical depth, aridity, IMPROVE, wildfires
- in
- Environmental Research Letters
- volume
- 12
- issue
- 1
- article number
- 014006
- publisher
- IOP Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85011371226
- ISSN
- 1748-9326
- DOI
- 10.1088/1748-9326/aa510a
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- f026a02e-34e8-4aea-a88e-11eb45dc1c6c
- date added to LUP
- 2019-06-27 14:05:19
- date last changed
- 2022-04-26 02:33:18
@article{f026a02e-34e8-4aea-a88e-11eb45dc1c6c,
abstract = {{<p>Feedbacks between climate warming, land surface aridity, and wildfire-derived aerosols represent a large source of uncertainty in future climate predictions. Here, long-term observations of aerosol optical depth, surface level aerosol loading, fire-area burned, and hydrologic simulations are used to show that regional-scale increases in aridity and resulting wildfires have significantly increased summertime aerosol loading in remote high elevation regions of the Intermountain West of the United States. Surface summertime organic aerosol loading and total aerosol optical depth were both strongly correlated (p < 0.05) with aridity and fire area burned at high elevation sites across major western US mountain ranges. These results demonstrate that surface-level organic aerosol loading is dominated by summertime wildfires at many high elevation sites. This analysis provides new constraints for climate projections on the influence of drought and resulting wildfires on aerosol loading. These empirical observations will help better constrain projected increases in organic aerosol loading with increased fire activity under climate change.</p>}},
author = {{Hallar, A. Gannet and Molotch, Noah P. and Hand, Jenny L. and Livneh, Ben and McCubbin, Ian B. and Petersen, Ross and Michalsky, Joseph and Lowenthal, Douglas and Kunkel, Kenneth E.}},
issn = {{1748-9326}},
keywords = {{aerosol; aerosol optical depth; aridity; IMPROVE; wildfires}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{01}},
number = {{1}},
publisher = {{IOP Publishing}},
series = {{Environmental Research Letters}},
title = {{Impacts of increasing aridity and wildfires on aerosol loading in the intermountain Western US}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa510a}},
doi = {{10.1088/1748-9326/aa510a}},
volume = {{12}},
year = {{2017}},
}