Abstract:
Wildfires produce smoke that can affect an area >1000 times the burn extent, with far-reaching human health, ecologic, and economic impacts. Accurately estimating aerosol load within smoke plumes is therefore crucial for understanding and mitigating these impacts. We evaluated the effectiveness of the latest Collection 6.1 MODIS Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) algorithm in estimating aerosol optical depth (AOD) across the U.S. during the historic 2020 wildfire season. We compared satellite-based MAIAC AOD to ground-based AERONET AOD measurements during no-, light-, medium-, and heavy-smoke conditions identified.
(Co-authors: Jacob Daniels, Lu Liang, Katherine B. Benedict, Janice Brahney, Roman Rangel, Kathleen C. Weathers, Alexandra G. Ponette-Gonzalez)
Read the study:
Science of the Total Environment 921 (2024) 171122