Satellite Multi-angle Observations of Wildfire Smoke Plumes During the CalFiDE Field Campaign: Aerosol Plume Heights, Particle Property Evolution, and Aging Timescales

K. T. Junghenn Noyes and R.A. Kahn

JGR: Atmospheres (in press.)

Summary:

Wildfire-related aircraft field campaigns frequently offer opportunities to validate remote-sensing retrievals of aerosol properties and other quantities derived from satellite-borne-instrument observations. Satellite instruments often provide regional context-imagery for more sparsely sampled aircraft and surface-based measurements. However, aerosol amount, particle type, aerosol plume height and the associated wind vector products retrieved from the NASA Earth Observing System’s Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument have matured sufficiently that these quantities can also contribute substantially to a campaign dataset, in a regional context. This is especially useful when such measurements are not acquired at all from the suborbital platforms. During NOAA’s California Fire Dynamics Experiment (CalFiDE), aircraft operations were coordinated with MISR overpasses on two occasions: for the Rum Creek fire on 30 August 2022, and for the Mosquito fire on 08 September. MISR-retrieved aerosol properties show distinctly different patterns of black and brown smoke particle distributions and inferred plume evolution in the two cases. This paper presents the satellite-retrieved results that complement the field observations, demonstrating what such measurements can offer, and contributing material for detailed fire dynamics and chemistry studies when combined with the CalFiDE suborbital observations and models in continuing studies.