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Biomass burning aerosol detection over Buenos Aires City, August 2009

This content has been downloaded from IOPscience. Please scroll down to see the full text. 2011 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 274 012092 (http://iopscience.iop.org/1742-6596/274/1/012092) View the table of contents for this issue, or go to the journal homepage for more Download details: IP Address: 191.96.248.18 This content was downloaded on 14/03/2017 at 11:18 Please note that terms and conditions apply.

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XVII Reunión Iberoamericana de Óptica & X Encuentro de Óptica, Láseres y Aplicaciones Journal of Physics: Conference Series 274 (2011) 012092

IOP Publishing

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/274/1/012092

Biomass burning aerosol detection over Buenos Aires City, August 2009 L A Otero, P R Ristori, E E Pawelko, J V Pallotta, R L D’Elia and E J Quel CEILAP (CITEFA-CONICET) - Juan B. de La Salle 4397 - B1603ALO Villa Martelli, Argentina. E-Mail: [email protected] Abstract. At the end of August 2009, a biomass burning aerosol intrusion event was detected at the Laser and Applications Research Center, CEILAP (CITEFA-CONICET) (34.5º S – 58.5º W) at Villa Martelli, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This center has a sunphotometer from the AERONET-NASA global network, UV solar radiation sensors, a meteorological station and an aerosol lidar system. The aerosol origin was determined by means of back-trajectories and satellite images. This work studies the aerosol air mass optical characterization and their effect in UV solar radiation. Key words: biomass burning, aerosol, sunphotometer.

1. Introduction Biomass burning events has an important environmental impact [1, 2] as it releases large amounts of solid carbon combustion particles as well as greenhouse gases as carbon oxides, methane and nonmethane hydrocarbons, nitric oxide and methyl cloride (natural source of atmospheric chlorine) between others. These compounds which were stored for years are freed to the atmosphere in a matter of hours. Aerosols generated in this way have both direct and indirect effects on the surface available solar radiation and regional precipitation. The vast majority of the burnings are human initiated. Smoke plumes from these fires are usually visible from space [3]. The intense tropical convective activity rapidly uplifts these aerosols to altitudes at which they can be easily transported over long distances [4] affecting regional air quality, climate and human health by causing respiratory problems. The most active regions in the world are Africa, South America and Siberia. 2. Event Observation The Nd:YAG based multiwavelength Raman lidar placed at CEILAP detected multiple aerosol layers over the site on August 24, 2009 [5, 6]. These kinds of events are frequent in this region between August and September (late winter – early spring), normally due to agricultural land biomass burning activities after the harvest [7, 8, 9, 10]. These aerosol clouds had an important optical density making them visible for collocated passive solar radiation detection instruments, during clear sky condition (as sometimes clouds sere also present). These instruments were a sun-photometer from AERONETNASA [11] for aerosol observations), and an ultraviolet pyranometer to detect solar radiation in the UVA band. Satellite-based instruments also observed this event. In this particular case the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument placed in afternoon equatorial crossing time AQUA

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XVII Reunión Iberoamericana de Óptica & X Encuentro de Óptica, Láseres y Aplicaciones IOP Publishing Journal of Physics: Conference Series 274 (2011) 012092 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/274/1/012092

constellation and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) placed in Aura constellation placed 15 minutes after AQUA were used. Figure 1 shows the 1064 nm attenuated backscatter signal between 80 m to 13 km. At higher altitudes, some clouds are present between 6 km and 12 km showing strong backscattered signal and making difficult the observation of the aerosol layer in this graph. Then figure 2 show a zoomed and coloradapted view of the region in which the aerosols are present (between 80 m and 5 km).

Figure 1. August 24th, 2009 – Attenuated Backscatter Full Range Lidar Observation (Arbitrary Units).

Figure 2. August 24th, 2009 –Attenuated Backscatter Lower Atmosphere Lidar Observation (Arbitrary Units).

Figure 3. Fires in South America Satellite: Aqua - Figure 4. Fires in South America Satellite: Pixel size: 2 km, August 29th, 2009 at 17:45 UTC Aqua – Zoom over Buenos Aires City and Delta (http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/). del Paraná, August 29th, 2009 at 17:45 UTC (http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/). The AQUA satellite also observed this event. An image of this satellite (figure 3) from August 29th 17:45 UTC shows the hot spots and smoke plumes reaching Buenos Aires. A closer zoom (figure 4) of the region (Paraná Delta Region, City of Buenos Aires and suburbs) shows that plumes from the Delta

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of Parana River also arrive to Buenos Aires. It becomes evident that two combined biomass burning events, one local and one from transport, arrived to the central region of Argentina.

Figure 5. NOAA HYSPLIT MODEL Backward trajectories ending at 16 UTC, August 24th, 2009. (http://ready.arl.noaa.gov/HYSPLIT.php).




Back-trajectory and wind circulation studies show that these aerosol layers could be part of a major aerosol biomass burning event which took place between August 15 and 31 in the central and northern

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regions of Argentina, Paraguay and South Brazil. Running the NOAA HYbrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory model (HYSPLIT) [12] in a back-trajectory mode at different heights (from 500 m to 6000 m, but only up to 3000 m are shown) for same days. This study shows in figures 5 to 8 the origin of these air masses in the North of Argentina and in Paraguay. Figures 9 to 14 show the air mass wind direction from the NOAA ESDL simulation-reanalysis [13] database showing a cyclonic pattern at 500 hPa and 850 hPa for a better understanding of the prevalent atmospheric conditions during August 29th and 30th. Circulation observed at different heights indicates that aerosol transport path overpasses Buenos Aires.

Figure 9. Wind Shear in m/s NOAA/ESRL at Figure 10. Wind Shear in m/s NOAA/ESRL at 850 hPa, August 24th, 2009. 850 hPa, August 22nd, 2009. (www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/composites/day/) (www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/composites/day/)

Figure 11. Wind Shear in m/s NOAA/ESRL at Figure 12. Wind Shear in m/s NOAA/ESRL at 500 hPa, August 30th, 2009. 500 hPa, August 29th, 2009. (www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/composites/day/) (www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/composites/day/)

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Figure 13. Wind Shear in m/s NOAA/ESRL at Figure 14. Wind Shear in m/s NOAA/ESRL at 850 hPa, August 29th, 2009. 850 hPa, August 30th, 2009. (www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/composites/day/) (www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/composites/day/)

August 20th, 2009.

August 21st, 2009.

August 24th, 2009.

August 25th, 2009.

August 29th, 2009.

August 30th, 2009.

Figure 15. Corrected Maximum Optical Depth over Land at 470 nm (MODIS/AQUA). (http://modis-atmos.gsfc.nasa.gov/)

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Figure 15 shows the MODIS/AQUA 470 nm aerosol optical thickness (AOT) evolution sequence over South America starting on August 20th and finishing on August 30th. The first images show high AOT values over the Amazonian region due to several biomass burning sources in this place. Plume propagation is also observed. The last two days of the sequence the plume reaches the central region of Argentina and Buenos Aires in which the AOT increases. In Buenos Aires this plume receives also the contribution from the Parana delta plume generated by local fires. The OMI overpass for August 29th and 30th (figure 16) presents high values of its “Aerosol Index” product. This is a base 10 logarithmic value of the measured to estimated radiance ratio at 360 nm and it is a measure of how much the backscattered UV radiation from a real aerosol polluted atmosphere containing aerosols differs from that of a pure molecular one. Under most conditions, the AI is positive for absorbing aerosols and negative for non-absorbing aerosols (pure scattering).

August 21st, 2009.

August 23rd, 2009.

August 24th, 2009.

August 25th, 2009

August 29th, 2009.

August 30th, 2009.

Figure 16. Aerosol Index from OMI – NASA. (http://toms.gsfc.nasa.gov/aerosols/aerosols_v8.html) The aerosol characterization was spectrally studied at the Buenos Aires site. Figures 17 to 21 show a six-wavelength aerosol measurement ranging from the UVA to the near infrared range observed by the AERONET sun-photometers located in the affected region. Table 1 shows the exact location of these sites. Table 1. AERONET Site Location Station CEILAP-BA Córdoba-CETT Alta Floresta Río Branco Ji Parana SE

Latitude 34.5 S 21.5 S 9.9 S 10.0 S 10.5 S

Longitude 58.5 W 64.5 W 56.1 W 67.9 W 64.5 W

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Elevation 10 m 730 m 277 m 212 m 218 m

Country Argentina Argentina Brazil Brazil Brazil


An important AOT increase can be seen at each station at mid August. Alta Floresta station shows a 4 times increase of the AOT while CEILAP-BA is 10 times higher on August 30 using the values retrieved on August 15 as a reference [14].

Figure 17. Aerosol optical thickness temporal Figure 18. Aerosol optical thickness temporal evolution for Córdoba-CETT station. evolution for Alta Floresta station.

Figure 19. Aerosol optical thickness temporal Figure 20. Aerosol optical thickness temporal evolution for Río Branco station. evolution for Ji Parana SE station.

Figure 21. Aerosol optical thickness temporal Figure 22. Aerosol optical thickness at 440 nm evolution for CEILAP-BA AERONET station. versus Angstrom coefficient for CEILAP-BA AERONET station. The Ångström coefficient is an indirect indicator of aerosol size and type. A common aerosol characterization is the Ångström coefficient vs. the 440 nm AOT dispersion chart, as shown in figure 22 for the CEILAP-BA AERONET station. Following the aerosol characterization presented on [15] these aerosols correspond to Continental Polluted and Biomass Burning. In the case of aerosol hygroscopy the AOT increases with water vapor content. This chart is shown in figure 23.

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Figure 24 shows a Single Scattering Albedo decrease with increasing wavelengths. This is a common feature in presence or biomass burning aerosols [16]. The particle size distribution is another AERONET product which is derived from both direct and indirect solar observations is. Biomass burning aerosols average size is normally smaller than dust. Expected mean radius values are below 1 µm [17]. Confirming these expectation figures 25 and 26 show a bimodal distribution with increased values for August 30th.

Figure 23. Aerosol optical thickness at 440 nm Figure 24. Single Scattering Albedo wavelength versus Water Vapor Content for CEILAP-BA dependency for CEILAP-BA AERONET station. AERONET station. In addition UV-A radiation was measured by an in situ Radiometer model MS-210A, EKO Ins Trading Co. in the spectral range 315 nm – 400 nm. Figure 27 shows a daily progressive attenuation of the solar radiation reaching a maximum attenuation referred to August 25th of 12 % due to the presence of aerosols [18].

Figure 25. Aerosol size distribution for Figure 26. Aerosol size distribution for CEILAP-BA AERONET station, August 29th, CEILAP-BA AERONET station, August 30th, 2009. 2009.

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Figure 27. UVA solar radiation for almost clear sky conditions on August 25th, 28th and 30th. 3. Conclusion An important biomass-burning events, probably due to burns after agricultural activities [10, 12], was observed using satellite and ground based measurement. The smoke source transported to Buenos Aires was identified more precisely using HYSPLIT forward and back trajectories. Both events, one in the north of Argentina and neighboring countries and the other in Entre Ríos were traduced as high and persistent AOT values over the region. The main characteristics of these events were an important AOT increase, Ångström coefficients near two and an aerosol size distribution with a predominant sub-micrometer mode. Acknowledgments We would like to thank Brent Holben and all the AERONET staff for establishing and maintaining all the stations specially Ji Parana SE, Alta Floresta and Rio Branco in Brazil; CEILAP-BA and CORDOBA-CETT used in this study. The authors gratefully acknowledge the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) for maintaining the HYSPLIT transport and dispersion model and READY website (http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready.php) used for this publication. We wish also to thank the following institutions: JICA, CONAE, CONICET and ANPCyT for their local support. References [1] Crutzen P and Andreae M 1990 Biomass burning in the tropics: Impact on atmospheric chemistry and biogeochemical cycles Science 250 1669 [2] Andreae M 1995 Climatic effects of changing atmospheric aerosol levels, in World Survey of Climatology, Future Climates of the World vol 16 ed Henderson-Sellers (Elsevier Sci., New York) pp 341–392 [3] Wood C and Nelson R 1991 Astronaut observations of global biomass burning, in Global Biomass Burning: Atmospheric, Climatic and Biospheric Implications ed Levine (MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.) chapter 3 pp 29–40 [4] Raloff J 1999 Sooty Air Cuts China’s Crop Yields Sci. News 156 356 [5] Otero L, Ristori P, Fochesatto J, Wolfram E, Porteneuve J, Flamant P and Quel E 2004 First aerosol measurements with a multiwavelength lidar system at Buenos Aires, Argentina Proc. 22nd International Laser Radar Conference (Matera Italy July 2004) ed ESA SP 561 vol II 769 [6] Ristori P, Otero L, Pawelko E, Pallotta J and Quel E 2010 Aerosol and Atmospheric Boundary Layer Temporal Evolution in Buenos Aires, Argentina during May 12, 2006 Proc. 25th International Laser Radar Conference (Saint Petersburg Russia July 2010) ed V. E. Zuev Institute of Atmospheric Optics SB RAS vol I 684

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[7] [8]

[9]

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[11]

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[17] [18]

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