Investigating June 2023 Transport of Canadian Wildfire PM2.5 and XCO Plumes to Eastern US via Satellite and Model Data

In 2023 Canada experienced its worst wildfire season of the 21st century, with 11 of the 13 provinces and territories affected since March, though the wildfire season historically starts in May. Anomalously intense fires reported in early June over central Canada triggered evacuation orders and states of emergency in Quebec and Ontario as air quality health indices increased. Strong northerly winds aloft advected PM2.5 and Carbon Monoxide (CO) plumes over the northeastern region of the United States, prompting air quality alerts for New York and surrounding states, including Washington, D.C. The NASA TRopospheric Ozone and Precursors from Earth System Sounding (TROPESS) project captured the elevated column-averaged CO (XCO) emissions associated with the pollution event during the initial drift of the smoke over the region on June 5-6, the maximum pollution levels on June 7, and drift of the smoke to the northern American South on June 8. Additionally, the Hazardous Air Quality Ensemble System (HAQES) model and NASA Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) indicated PM2.5 Organic Carbon as the main dominant pollutant in wildfire smoke imagery during the June 7 maximum pollution levels captured by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite. We will present an analysis of the US pollution event from its transport into Northeastern states, eventual drift into the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, with regional air quality examples at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), and eventual dissipation over the Atlantic Ocean.