Impacts of increasing aridity and wildfires on aerosol loading in the intermountain Western US
Feedbacks between climate warming, land surface aridity, and wildfire-derived aerosols represent a large source of uncertainty in future climate predictions. Here, long-term observations of aerosol optical depth, surface level aerosol loading, fire-area burned, and hydrologic simulations are used to...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IOP Publishing
2017-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa510a |
| _version_ | 1797748385510326272 |
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| author | A Gannet Hallar Noah P Molotch Jenny L Hand Ben Livneh Ian B McCubbin Ross Petersen Joseph Michalsky Douglas Lowenthal Kenneth E Kunkel |
| author_facet | A Gannet Hallar Noah P Molotch Jenny L Hand Ben Livneh Ian B McCubbin Ross Petersen Joseph Michalsky Douglas Lowenthal Kenneth E Kunkel |
| author_sort | A Gannet Hallar |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Feedbacks between climate warming, land surface aridity, and wildfire-derived aerosols represent a large source of uncertainty in future climate predictions. Here, long-term observations of aerosol optical depth, surface level aerosol loading, fire-area burned, and hydrologic simulations are used to show that regional-scale increases in aridity and resulting wildfires have significantly increased summertime aerosol loading in remote high elevation regions of the Intermountain West of the United States. Surface summertime organic aerosol loading and total aerosol optical depth were both strongly correlated ( p < 0.05) with aridity and fire area burned at high elevation sites across major western US mountain ranges. These results demonstrate that surface-level organic aerosol loading is dominated by summertime wildfires at many high elevation sites. This analysis provides new constraints for climate projections on the influence of drought and resulting wildfires on aerosol loading. These empirical observations will help better constrain projected increases in organic aerosol loading with increased fire activity under climate change. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:04:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-cccfb1441ad84df9b6ec38b299c2af96 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:04:00Z |
| publishDate | 2017-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-cccfb1441ad84df9b6ec38b299c2af962023-08-09T14:29:59ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262017-01-0112101400610.1088/1748-9326/aa510aImpacts of increasing aridity and wildfires on aerosol loading in the intermountain Western USA Gannet Hallar0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9972-0056Noah P Molotch1Jenny L Hand2Ben Livneh3Ian B McCubbin4Ross Petersen5Joseph Michalsky6Douglas Lowenthal7Kenneth E Kunkel8University of Utah , Department of Atmospheric Science, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Desert Research Institute, Division of Atmospheric Science, Reno, NV, USA; Storm Peak Laboratory, Desert Research Institute, Steamboat Springs, CO, USAUniversity of Colorado , Geography Department and Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Boulder, CO, USA; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USAColorado State University , Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Fort Collins, CO, USACooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado , Boulder, CO, USA; Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado , Boulder, CO, USAStorm Peak Laboratory, Desert Research Institute, Steamboat Springs, CO, USA; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USAUniversity of Utah , Department of Atmospheric Science, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Storm Peak Laboratory, Desert Research Institute, Steamboat Springs, CO, USACooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado , Boulder, CO, USA; NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO, USAUniversity of Utah , Department of Atmospheric Science, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Desert Research Institute, Division of Atmospheric Science, Reno, NV, USACooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, North Carolina State University , Asheville, NC, and National Centers for Environmental Information, Asheville, NC, USAFeedbacks between climate warming, land surface aridity, and wildfire-derived aerosols represent a large source of uncertainty in future climate predictions. Here, long-term observations of aerosol optical depth, surface level aerosol loading, fire-area burned, and hydrologic simulations are used to show that regional-scale increases in aridity and resulting wildfires have significantly increased summertime aerosol loading in remote high elevation regions of the Intermountain West of the United States. Surface summertime organic aerosol loading and total aerosol optical depth were both strongly correlated ( p < 0.05) with aridity and fire area burned at high elevation sites across major western US mountain ranges. These results demonstrate that surface-level organic aerosol loading is dominated by summertime wildfires at many high elevation sites. This analysis provides new constraints for climate projections on the influence of drought and resulting wildfires on aerosol loading. These empirical observations will help better constrain projected increases in organic aerosol loading with increased fire activity under climate change.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa510aariditywildfiresaerosolaerosol optical depthIMPROVE |
| spellingShingle | A Gannet Hallar Noah P Molotch Jenny L Hand Ben Livneh Ian B McCubbin Ross Petersen Joseph Michalsky Douglas Lowenthal Kenneth E Kunkel Impacts of increasing aridity and wildfires on aerosol loading in the intermountain Western US Environmental Research Letters aridity wildfires aerosol aerosol optical depth IMPROVE |
| title | Impacts of increasing aridity and wildfires on aerosol loading in the intermountain Western US |
| title_full | Impacts of increasing aridity and wildfires on aerosol loading in the intermountain Western US |
| title_fullStr | Impacts of increasing aridity and wildfires on aerosol loading in the intermountain Western US |
| title_full_unstemmed | Impacts of increasing aridity and wildfires on aerosol loading in the intermountain Western US |
| title_short | Impacts of increasing aridity and wildfires on aerosol loading in the intermountain Western US |
| title_sort | impacts of increasing aridity and wildfires on aerosol loading in the intermountain western us |
| topic | aridity wildfires aerosol aerosol optical depth IMPROVE |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa510a |
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