Emission Factors for Crop Residue and Prescribed Fires in the Eastern US During FIREX-AQ

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Authors

Katherine R. Travis, NASA Langley Research Center
James H. Crawford, NASA Langley Research Center
Amber J. Soja, NASA Langley Research Center
Emily M. Gargulinski, NASA Langley Research Center
Richard H. Moore, NASA Langley Research Center
Elizabeth B. Wiggins, NASA Langley Research Center
Glenn S. Diskin, NASA Langley Research Center
Joshua P. DiGangi, NASA Langley Research Center
John B. Nowak, NASA Langley Research Center
Hannah Halliday, NASA Langley Research Center
Robert J. Yokelson, University of Montana
Jessica L. McCarty, Miami University
Isobel J. Simpson, University of California, Irvine
Donald R. Blake, University of California, Irvine
Simone Meinardi, University of California, Irvine
Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Atmospheric Chemistry Observations & Modeling Laboratory
Eric C. Apel, Atmospheric Chemistry Observations & Modeling Laboratory
Alan J. Hills, Atmospheric Chemistry Observations & Modeling Laboratory
Carsten Warneke, NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL)
Matthew M. Coggon, NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL)
Andrew W. Rollins, NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL)
Jessica B. Gilman, NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL)
Caroline C. Womack, University of Colorado
Michael A. Robinson, University of Colorado
Joseph M. Katich, University of Colorado
Jeff Peischl, NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL)
Georgios I. Gkatzelis, NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL)
Ilann Bourgeois, NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL)
Pamela S. Rickly, NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL)
Aaron Lamplugh, NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL)
Jack E. Dibb, University of New Hampshire, DurhamFollow
Jose L. Jimenez, University of Colorado Boulder
Pedro Campuzano-Jost, University of Colorado Boulder
Douglas A. Day, University of Colorado Boulder
Hongyu Guo, University of Colorado Boulder
Demetrios Pagonis, University of Colorado Boulder
Paul O. Wennberg, California Institute of Technology
John D. Crounse, California Institute of Technology
Lu Xu, NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory
Thomas F. Hanisco, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Glenn M. Wolfe, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Jin Liao, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Jason M. St. Clair, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Benjamin A. Nault, Aerodyne Research, Inc.
Alan Fried, University of Colorado, Boulder
Anne E. Perring, Colgate University

Abstract

Agricultural and prescribed burning activities emit large amounts of trace gases and aerosols on regional to global scales. We present a compilation of emission factors (EFs) and emission ratios from the eastern portion of the Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) campaign in 2019 in the United States, which sampled burning of crop residues and other prescribed fire fuels. FIREX-AQ provided comprehensive chemical characterization of 53 crop residue and 22 prescribed fires. Crop residues burned at different modified combustion efficiencies (MCE), with corn residue burning at higher MCE than other fuel types. Prescribed fires burned at lower MCE (< 0.90) which is typical, while grasslands burned at lower MCE (0.90) than normally observed due to moist, green, growing season fuels. Most non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) were significantly anticorrelated with MCE except for ethanol and NMVOCs that were measured with less certainty. We identified 23 species where crop residue fires differed by more than 50% from prescribed fires at the same MCE. Crop residue EFs were greater for species related to agricultural chemical use and fuel composition as well as oxygenated NMVOCs possibly due to the presence of metals such as potassium. Prescribed EFs were greater for monoterpenes (5×). FIREX-AQ crop residue average EFs generally agreed with the previous agricultural fire study in the US but had large disagreements with global compilations. FIREX-AQ observations show the importance of regionally-specific and fuel-specific EFs as first steps to reduce uncertainty in modeling the air quality impacts of fire emissions.

Department

Earth Systems Research Center

Publication Date

9-2-2023

Journal Title

Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

Publisher

AGU

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2023JD039309

Document Type

Article

Recommended Citation

Travis, K. R., J. H. Crawford, A. .J. Soja, E. M. Gargulinski, R. H. Moore, E. B. Wiggins, G. S. Diskin, J. P. DiGangi, J. B. Nowak, H. Halliday, R. J. Yokelson, J. L. McCarty, I. J. Simpson, D. R. Blake, S. Meinardi, R. S. Hornbrook, E. C. Apel, A. J. Hills, C. Warneke, M. M. Coggon, A. W. Rollins, J. B. Gilman, C. C. Womack,  M. A. Robinson, J. M. Katich, J. Peischl, G. I. Gkatzelis, I. Bourgeois, P. S. Rickly,  A. Lamplugh, J. E. Dibb, J. L. Jimenez, P. Campuzano-Jost, D. A. Day, H. Guo, D. Pagonis, P. O. Wennberg, J. D. Crounse, L. Xu, T. F. Hanisco, G. M. Wolfe, J. Liao, J. M. St. Clair, B. A. Nault, A. Fried, and A. E. Perrring, (2023), Emission factors for crop residue and prescribed fires in the Eastern US during FIREX-AQ, Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 128, e2023JD039309. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JD039309

Rights

© 2023 The Authors.

Comments

This is an open access article published by AGU in Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres in 2024, available online: https://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2023JD039309