New seasonal pattern of pollution emerges from changing North American wildfires

Rising emissions from wildfires over recent decades in the Pacific Northwest are known to counteract the reductions in human-produced aerosol pollution over North America. Since amplified Pacific Northwest wildfires are predicted under accelerating climate change, it is essential to understand both...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2022-04, Vol.13 (1), p.2043-2043, Article 2043
Main Authors: Buchholz, Rebecca R., Park, Mijeong, Worden, Helen M., Tang, Wenfu, Edwards, David P., Gaubert, Benjamin, Deeter, Merritt N., Sullivan, Thomas, Ru, Muye, Chin, Mian, Levy, Robert C., Zheng, Bo, Magzamen, Sheryl
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/106/35/824
704/106/47
704/172/4081
704/4111
704/47
Air Pollutants - analysis
Air pollution
Air Pollution - analysis
Air quality
Carbon Monoxide
Climate change
Climate prediction
Emissions
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
multidisciplinary
North America
Outdoor air quality
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Seasonal variations
Seasons
Wildfires
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Summary:Rising emissions from wildfires over recent decades in the Pacific Northwest are known to counteract the reductions in human-produced aerosol pollution over North America. Since amplified Pacific Northwest wildfires are predicted under accelerating climate change, it is essential to understand both local and transported contributions to air pollution in North America. Here, we find corresponding increases for carbon monoxide emitted from the Pacific Northwest wildfires and observe significant impacts on both local and down-wind air pollution. Between 2002 and 2018, the Pacific Northwest atmospheric carbon monoxide abundance increased in August, while other months showed decreasing carbon monoxide, so modifying the seasonal pattern. These seasonal pattern changes extend over large regions of North America, to the Central USA and Northeast North America regions, indicating that transported wildfire pollution could potentially impact the health of millions of people. Growing emissions from Pacific Northwest wildfires have increased atmospheric carbon monoxide in August, raising questions about potential health impacts as the seasonal pattern of air quality changes for large regions of North America.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-022-29623-8