Lidar Measurements of Ozone and Aerosol Backscatter in Fresh and Aged Wildfire Smoke above Boulder, Colorado during the Summer of 2024

The influence of wildfire smoke on air quality along the Colorado Front Range during the summer of 2024 is investigated using ozone, particulate backscatter, and wind measurements from lidars located at the NOAA David Skaggs Research Center (DSRC) in Boulder, Colorado. The ozone content and near ultraviolet (0.3 µm) backscatter of the smoke plumes was measured by the Tunable Optical Profiler for Aerosols and oZone (TOPAZ) lidar, and winds and near-infrared (1.5 µm) backscatter were measured by a collocated autonomous Doppler lidar. Our measurements examine both aged dispersed smoke from wildfires in Canada and the Pacific Northwest that appeared above Boulder on July 21-25, and fresher smoke from nearby (<50 km) wildfires between July 31 and August 6. In this talk, we will compare the wavelength dependence of the particulate backscatter with nearby AERONET measurements and explore the relationship between near-ultraviolet backscatter and ozone concentration in the fresh and aged smoke plumes. These findings will then be compared to our previously published measurements from the summer of 2021.