Assessment of Canadian Wildfire Optical Properties Using an Integrated Monitoring System

Canadian-born wildfire smoke during summer 2023 (10 May and 7, 8, 29, and 30 June 2023) was monitored by using multiple observation platforms as an integrated monitoring system (IMS). The IMS discussed comprises several components inclduing enhanced monitoring of vertically resolved observations of ceilometer aerosol backscatter and state variables from radiosondes (e.g., temperature and relative humidity), ground PM_2.5 monitors, column optical properties from the Visible Infrared Imager-Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-16) satellite imagery, and AERONET and Unified Ceilometer Network stations along the I-95 corridor from New York to Virginia. We discuss the impact of wildfire smoke in terms of the aerosol optical depth (AOD) below and above the planetary boundary layer. The ceilometer AOD is derived from aerosol extinction coefficient profiles obtained by constraining the lidar ratio to NASA AERONET AOD. Radiosonde measurements conducted in the afternoon of 7 and 8 June 2023 show evidence for a shallow boundary layer at 570m and 465m, respectively, allowing for the sustained presence of well mixed smoke near the surface. Additionally, regions of high aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements using GOES-16 East satellite data correlate with high aerosol backscatter measurements from ceilometers across multiple sites. AERONET AOD and single scattering albedo (SSA) provide an additional point of agreement with ceilometer and satellite data, showing high AOD and low SSA for the dates in question. Additionally, Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model runs are compared to ceilometer observations and retrievals.