Ozone chemistry in western U.S. wildfire plumes

Wildfires are a substantial but poorly quantified source of tropospheric ozone (O-3). Here, to investigate the highly variable O-3 chemistry in wildfire plumes, we exploit the in situ chemical characterization of western wildfires during the FIREX-AQ flight campaign and show that O-3 production can be predicted as a function of experimentally constrained OH exposure, volatile organic compound (VOC) reactivity, and the fate of peroxy radicals. The O-3 chemistry exhibits rapid transition in chemical regimes. Within a few daylight hours, the O-3 formation substantially slows and is largely limited by the abundance of nitrogen oxides (NOx). This finding supports previous observations that O-3 formation is enhanced when VOC-rich wildfire smoke mixes into NOx-rich urban plumes, thereby deteriorating urban air quality. Last, we relate O-3 chemistry to the underlying fire characteristics, enabling a more accurate representation of wildfire chemistry in atmospheric models that are used to study air quality and predict climate.

To Access Resource:

Questions? Email Resource Support Contact:

  • opensky@ucar.edu
    UCAR/NCAR - Library

Resource Type publication
Temporal Range Begin N/A
Temporal Range End N/A
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat N/A
Bounding Box South Lat N/A
Bounding Box West Long N/A
Bounding Box East Long N/A
Spatial Representation N/A
Spatial Resolution N/A
Related Links N/A
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format PDF
Standardized Resource Format PDF
Asset Size N/A
Legal Constraints

Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name N/A
Resource Support Email opensky@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library
Distributor N/A
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email opensky@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library

Author Xu, Lu
Crounse, John D.
Vasquez, Krystal T.
Allen, Hannah
Wennberg, Paul O.
Bourgeois, Ilann
Brown, Steven S.
Campuzano-Jost, Pedro
Coggon, Matthew M.
Crawford, James H.
DiGangi, Joshua P.
Diskin, Glenn S.
Fried, Alan
Gargulinski, Emily M.
Gilman, Jessica B.
Gkatzelis, Georgios I.
Guo, Hongyu
Hair, Johnathan W.
Hall, Samuel R.
Halliday, Hannah A.
Hanisco, Thomas F.
Hannun, Reem A.
Holmes, Christopher D.
Huey, L. Gregory
Jimenez, Jose L.
Lamplugh, Aaron
Lee, Young Ro
Liao, Jin
Lindaas, Jakob
Neuman, J. Andrew
Nowak, John B.
Peischl, Jeff
Peterson, David A.
Piel, Felix
Richter, Dirk
Rickly, Pamela S.
Robinson, Michael A.
Rollins, Andrew W.
Ryerson, Thomas B.
Sekimoto, Kanako
Selimovic, Vanessa
Shingler, Taylor
Soja, Amber J.
St. Clair, Jason M.
Tanner, David J.
Ullmann, Kirk
Veres, Patrick R.
Walega, James
Warneke, Carsten
Washenfelder, Rebecca A.
Weibring, Petter
Wisthaler, Armin
Wolfe, Glenn M.
Womack, Caroline C.
Yokelson, Robert J.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2021-12-10T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
Progress N/A
Metadata Date 2023-08-18T18:15:59.736971
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:24923
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Xu, Lu, Crounse, John D., Vasquez, Krystal T., Allen, Hannah, Wennberg, Paul O., Bourgeois, Ilann, Brown, Steven S., Campuzano-Jost, Pedro, Coggon, Matthew M., Crawford, James H., DiGangi, Joshua P., Diskin, Glenn S., Fried, Alan, Gargulinski, Emily M., Gilman, Jessica B., Gkatzelis, Georgios I., Guo, Hongyu, Hair, Johnathan W., Hall, Samuel R., Halliday, Hannah A., Hanisco, Thomas F., Hannun, Reem A., Holmes, Christopher D., Huey, L. Gregory, Jimenez, Jose L., Lamplugh, Aaron, Lee, Young Ro, Liao, Jin, Lindaas, Jakob, Neuman, J. Andrew, Nowak, John B., Peischl, Jeff, Peterson, David A., Piel, Felix, Richter, Dirk, Rickly, Pamela S., Robinson, Michael A., Rollins, Andrew W., Ryerson, Thomas B., Sekimoto, Kanako, Selimovic, Vanessa, Shingler, Taylor, Soja, Amber J., St. Clair, Jason M., Tanner, David J., Ullmann, Kirk, Veres, Patrick R., Walega, James, Warneke, Carsten, Washenfelder, Rebecca A., Weibring, Petter, Wisthaler, Armin, Wolfe, Glenn M., Womack, Caroline C., Yokelson, Robert J.. (2021). Ozone chemistry in western U.S. wildfire plumes. UCAR/NCAR - Library. http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d75m696k. Accessed 28 June 2025.

Harvest Source