Abstract
A smoke plume originating from the massive wildfires near Moscow was clearly detected in northern Finland on 30 July 2010. Measurements made with remote sensing instruments demonstrated how the biomass burning aerosols affected the chemical and optical characteristics of the atmosphere in regions hundreds of kilometers away from the actual fires. In this study, we used MODIS, AIRS, CALIOP, PFR, ceilometers, FTS and Brewer data to quantify the properties of the transported smoke plume. In addition, in situ measurements of aerosol concentration (DMPS), absorption (aethalometer) and scattering (nephelometer) are presented. We found that due to the smoke plume in northern Finland, the daily averaged optical thickness of aerosols increased fourfold, and MODIS retrieved AOD as high as 4.5 for the thickest part of the plume. FTS measurements showed that CO concentration increased by 100% during the plume. CALIOP and ceilometer measurements revealed that the smoke plume was located close to the surface, below 3 km, and that the plume was not homogeneously mixed. In addition, in situ measurements showed that the scattering and absorption coefficients were almost 20 times larger in the smoke plume than on average, and that the number of particles larger than 320 nm increased 14-fold. Moreover, a comparison with in situ measurements recorded in eastern Finland on the previous day showed that the transport from eastern to northern Finland decreased the scattering coefficient, black carbon concentration, and total number concentration 0.5%/h, 1.5%/h and 2.0%/h, respectively.
Highlights
Intensive wildfires took place in the western parts of Russia, near Moscow, during June–August2010
On 30 July 2010, a smoke plume originating from the Russian wildfires was detected, with a number of instruments, in northern Finland (Sodankylä and Pallas)
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) level 3 Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) data in Figure 1(b) shows how the smoke plume with AODs up to 4 reached Sodankylä, while the rest of Finland remained relatively unaffected by the plume
Summary
Intensive wildfires took place in the western parts of Russia, near Moscow, during June–August. Mei [3] combined remote sensing data and surface observations to estimate the impacts of the wildfires over Europe and Asia They found that in a number of Eastern European countries (including Finland) the particle mass concentrations were enhanced by a factor of 3–5 on the days when wildfire plumes moved westward. Analyzed surface concentrations of CO, particle mass (PM10) and ozone in the Moscow region using remote sensing and ground-based measurements with a mesoscale model. They concluded that the extreme air pollution episodes in Moscow were mainly caused by fires less than 200 km away. Smoke aerosols are especially important in the Arctic because they have a considerable effect on surface albedo when they deposit on snow, and they introduce significant increases to the typically very low aerosol concentrations [11]
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