Tropical Biomass Fires and Tropospheric Chemistry

University Of Montana, Missoula MT

Investigators

Abstract

This project addresses the chemical composition of emissions from biomass burning. Biomass burning is a major source of trace gases and particles. In particular, the following questions will be addressed: 1. What are the major reactive and stable initial emissions from tropical deforestation fires, biofuel use, and agricultural waste burning? 2. Smoke plumes are both an unusual environment and a globally significant source of reactive gases. What is the rate of the photochemistry in smoke plumes from tropical deforestation fires? 3. What are the effects of cloud processing on gases and particles in Brazilian smoke? Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic techniques will be used to measure nearly all the major reactive and stable trace gases in biomass burning smoke. Airborne FTIR will be installed on a Brazilian research aircraft along with instruments that measure particle emission factors, size distribution, absorption, and scattering, as well as gas phase composition, including volatile organic compounds, and hydroxyl radicals. Comprehensive airborne measurements of the emission factors for savanna fires, tropical deforestation fires, and pasture maintenance fires will be made in Brazil for several weeks during the 2003/4 burning season.