Indonesia Forest Fires Exacerbate Carbon Monoxide Pollution over Peninsular Malaysia during July to September 2005

Abstract

Wind carried the smoke further afield from forest fires in Sumatra caused worse air pollution in Malaysia reached extremely hazardous levels and forced schools and an airport to close. There were 3,258 'hot spots' recorded by NOAA satellites in the province of Riau only in August, each one representing a fire. USM Pulau Pinang station results and data from the atmospheric infrared sounder (AIRS) indicate that an air mass originating from July to September over forest fires in Riau and North Sumatra arrived in Malaysia. AIRS with its two companion microwave instruments, (AMSU) and (HSB), form the integrated atmospheric sounding system. Provides information for several greenhouse gases, CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> , CH <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sub> , CO and O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> as well as to improve weather prediction and study the water and energy cycle. AIRS measure CO total column by (52)channels with uncertainty estimate 15-20% at 500mb. The retrieved CO total column amount (CO_total_column_A) as well as effective CO volume mixing ratio (CO_VMR_eff_A), level-3 monthly (AIR*3STM) 1deg*1deg spatial resolution and effective CO volume mixing ratio profile (CO_VMR_eff) (9 layers) ascending, level-2 daily standard are used to study the CO distribution & the impact of Indonesia forest fire, the map & data was processed and analyzed by using Photoshop & SigmaPlot 11.0 programs and compared for two timing of various, (day time) summer (July, August & September) 2005 & 2007.Note the variations in the biomass burning and CO emissions over study area, while highest CO occurs over Industrial and congested urban zones and a greater draw down of CO occurs over Perak. Carbon monoxide concentration on August 2005 higher than August 2007 in all cases, and agree very well on the horizontal distributions of CO represented by the high correlation coefficients (0.8472 - 0.8929). The CO maps were generated using Kriging interpolation technique.