Summer 2002 was a Regionally Hazy one in New England (Lots of Major Sulfate Episodes and One Big Forest Fire)

… and most of these episodes (except the fire) were accurately forecast and “captured” by UMD Aircraft Flights over MANE-VU RPO region

Photo by Peter Huoppi in the Burlington (VT) Free Press 7/8/02 (taken 7/7/02)

July 7, 2002 was one of the haziest days ever observed in VT

High PM concentrations, Poor Visibility, & unusual “Yellow” color

7/5/02 15:00

7/6/02 15:00

7/7/02 15:00

Burlington, VT CAMNET

Continuous Methods

CAMM in Burlington

TEOM in Rutland

Compared well with Collocated FRMs on Peak Smoke Day

(Note: “uncorrected” TEOM & CAMM and

prelim. Filter weights - not equilibrated 24 hrs.)

Burlington VT PM2.5 7/7/02

FRM : 61.4 ug/m3

Duplicate FRM: 62.6 ug/m3

CAMM 24-hr mean: 61.9 ug/m3

This is not an Exceedance Day – Clear Skies?

Impacts in NY State were highest at Highest Elevation (& most Northeasterly) Whiteface Mountain (from Dirk Felton, NY DEC)

Maximum Impacts in Maine occurred a day or two later (7/8-10) Note Second Short Spike early AM of 7/10 was also observed in

VT & Northeastern NY (Maine data from Tom Downs, Maine DEP)

Acadia impact occurred later (7/8-10) than

other NE sites.

Burlington, VT camera faces

West, so afternoon yellow

color may be enhanced, but both the haze

and the incident light had distinct

yellow tint all day on 7/7/02.

IMPROVE Nephelometers show the same pattern (well Duh!)

The (experimental) NGN3 (2.5 um heated inlet) at Acadia (see fire data on previous slide) appears to be functioning quite nicely as a continuous PM-2.5 monitor (based on collocated FRM run by Maine DEP).

Will be interesting to see the collocated Acadia NGN2/NGN3 comparison along with the IMPROVE Aerosol Speciation Data.

Smoke Pattern

from ASOS Visibility sensors

The largest circles

correspond to > 100 ug/m3

PM2.5

From R. Husar & his new

data browser!

Quebec Fires, July 6, 2002

SeaWiFS, METAR & TOMS Index Superimposed

SeaWiFS satellite and

METAR surface haze shown in the Voyager distributed data

browser

Satellite data are fetched from NASA GSFC; surface data

from NWS/CAPITA servers

Fires East of James Bay on July 6, 2000

Receptor Model Results on 1989-95 VT PM Data

Satellite Detected Canadian Fires, 1994-97

VT Impacts on 7/7/02 from Quebec fires were

Extreme, but smaller northern fire influences

are not uncommon.

Similar Woodsmoke Source Identified by Battelle Receptor Modeling at Lye Brook, VT also appears to come from North

Average Mass = 2.42 ug/m3 = 32.0 % of Total Fine Mass, Increasing Trend

Bext: Major on Best 20% days, Minor on Worst 20% Days, Summer Maxima

Major Mass Contributing Species of Source: OC, EC, S, K

Major Species Contributed by Source: OC, Mn, V, K, EC

Battelle Guess: Veg. Burning New Guess: Veg. Burning (local & Can.)

Why is this a chronic Forest Fire Area?

(Except for the SMOKE) this was Very, Very

Clean Canadian Air

Need to Assume Lots of Non-Carbon Organic Matter

(Oxygen, Hydrogen, etc.)

Burlington VT STN Mass agrees “perfectly” with Collocated CAMM & FRM(s) on 7/7/02

Traditional Fudge Factor: Organic Matter = 1.4 x Organic Carbon

Here, we need factor of 1.8 or 2, depending on how OC’s defined, (& assuming most of the “missing mass” on 7/7/02 was “organic matter” (& not water, etc.) and also assuming the STN “OC” or “OCx2-adjusted OC” is OK…)

Concerns over More Smoke on 7/11/02 Proved Incorrect

It appears the Fires had largely been extinguished

by July 9th or 10th