A Comprehensive Database for Smoke Optical Models

Biomass burning has long been identified as an important global source of aerosols, greenhouse gases, and reactive gases. It impacts air quality, human health, Earth’s radiation budget, and climate. Recent increasing occurrence and severity of wildfires has drawn both scientific and societal attention, highlighting the need to better quantify the magnitude of smoke emissions. Equally important is the need to understand the complexity of emissions and the influence which atmospheric aging has in smoke properties’ evolution over a wide range of scales. To address these necessities, satellite observations provide excellent spatial and temporal coverage, but the methods for retrieving aerosols require pre-defined models. As a result, the representativeness of the pre-defined models is crucial for determining the success of the satellite-based smoke retrievals. Here, we will summarize our survey for measurements from laboratories (e.g., the Fire Lab at Missoula Experiments), aircraft in-situ instruments during field campaigns (e.g., Biomass Burning Observation Project (BBOP) and FIREX), and the NASA Aerosol Robotic Network. We will also explore the full range of dry and humidified smoke properties. By comparing our synthesis to the pre-defined models used in several operational products, we will shed light on how to enhance smoke optical models for satellite retrievals.