1. Morris, Gary A., Scott Hersey, Anne M. Thompson, Steven Pawson, J. Eric Nielsen, Peter R. Colarco, W. Wallace Mcmillan, Andreas Stohl, Solene Turquety, Juying Warner, Bryan J. Johnson, Tom L. Kucsera, David E. Larko, Samuel J. Oltmans, and Jacquelyn C. Witte. "Alaskan and Canadian Forest Fires Exacerbate Ozone Pollution over Houston, Texas, on 19 and 20 July 2004."J. Geophys. Res. Journal of Geophysical Research111, no. D24 (2006)
Houston experienced significantly hazy skies on July-19-20, 2004. Atmosphere imaging software traced the origin of the smoky skies to an air mass that had traveled south from forest fires in Alaska and Canada. Data also found elevated ozone concentration at above 125ppb at the surface around this time. Integrated ozone data found thicker concentrations of ozone from before to during the two day period. Based on satellite data and ozone concentration observations, the forest fires in Alaska and Canada a week prior are to blame for exacerbating Houston's air pollution levels.
Gary A. Morris is the Dean of Natural Sciences and a physics professor at St. Edward's University. He has done research mostly on ozone mapping and making ozonesonde data more accurate. Anne M. Thompson is an adjunct professor of meteorology at Penn State, who has researched connections between gas variability and burning biomass.
The main finding of the article is that burning biomass from Alaska and Canada is capable of affecting pollution levels in Houston.
Results from NASA's Goddard Trajectory Model showed that the air mass hanging above Houston on July 19-20, 2004, did come from Alaska and Canada when those regions were experiencing severe forest fires. FLEXPART, a Lagrangian transport and dispersion model, showed that higher carbon monoxide levels were observed from July 18-21, 2004, and also suggests that the extra ozone that appeared in Houston did not originate from the stratosphrere. The TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) aerosol index tracked the plume of smoke formed in Alaska and Canada and traced it all the way to Houston.
“The combination of the ozone observations, satellite data, and model results implicates the biomass burning effluence originating in Alaska and Canada a week earlier in exacerbating pollution levels seen in Houston. “
“Surface monitors in the greater Houston area reported violations of the 1-hour ozone standard [Environmental Protection Agency, 1999] of 125 ppbv on 35 days and violations of the 8-hour standard of 85 ppbv on 45 days in 2004 (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ): http:// www.tceq.state.tx.us).”
“On 19 and 20 July, smoke was observed in Houston, where ozone levels between the surface and 5 km altitude increased 50– 110%. “
This study used multiple atmosphere modeling maps to track the path of pollutants from Canada to Alaska. These models include the NASA Goddard Trajectory Model to track the path of the wind seven days back based on air pressure, as well as the NASA TOMS aerosol index to track air masses with high aerosol content. The AIRS CO model was used to track carbon monoxide. All of these models are presented as maps with color-coded concentrations.
Health disparities are not addressed in this paper. It does not offer any indication of which neighborhoods had the highest ozone levels during this two day spell, or any specific location about where in Alaska and Canada these fires occurred.
This paper has been cited by at least 90 papers according to Google. These papers deal with addressing how forest fires in the northern parts of North America affect air quality on a regional and global scale.
Only one of the references cited in this report came from a government source (in this case, the EPA). This is surprising, since this paper used TCEQ data on ozone and een acknowledged that they received funding from the TCEQ, but did not reference any reports by them outside of links to the TCEQ's website.
Google offered a related study that studied the effect of forest fires in the Northern Hemisphere on ozone levels at a station in the Azores Islands in the Atlantic, which is about 1700km away from Portugal. This study found that ozone was highest in 2003, when Siberia experienced forest fires, and in 2004, when the Alaskan and Canadian forest fires referenced in the previous paper occurred. This does support the conclusions of the previous papers about how pollutants can travel from burning biomass in locations thousands of kilometers away from the source of pollution.
Next, I looked up the methods behind the NASA TOMS aerosol index, since that was used as one of the modeling methods in this study. Aerosols include smoke, dust, and volcanic ash. The concentration of aerosols in the air is determined by how much light and ultraviolet radiation is blocked by the air mass.
Finally, I looked at the AIRS CO data, that was used to provide another map of the traveling air mass. This system works by using infrared, microwave, and visible sensors to create and atmospheric map. This atmospheric sounding technique can accurately measure the abundance of gases in the atmosphere.
Addendum:
This article relates to findings about how air pollution is a cross-state issue, since ozone and carbon monoxide produced by forest fires in Alaska are capable of traveling thousands of kilometers to Houston and the Azores Islands and leaving tangible signs of their presence, such as hazy skies. This is also a much bigger scale, since multiple nations are affected by these fires. This means that there is not only the immediate affects of the blaze to worry about, but also collateral damage from pollutants reaching different states and countries.
Houston experienced significantly hazy skies on July-19-20, 2004. Atmosphere imaging software traced the origin of the smoky skies to an air mass that had traveled south from forest fires in Alaska and Canada. Data also found elevated ozone concentration at above 125ppb at the surface around this time. Integrated ozone data found thicker concentrations of ozone from before to during the two day period. Based on satellite data and ozone concentration observations, the forest fires in Alaska and Canada a week prior are to blame for exacerbating Houston's air pollution levels.
“Surface monitors in the greater Houston area reported violations of the 1-hour ozone standard [Environmental Protection Agency, 1999] of 125 ppbv on 35 days and violations of the 8-hour standard of 85 ppbv on 45 days in 2004 (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ): http:// www.tceq.state.tx.us).”
“On 19 and 20 July, smoke was observed in Houston, where ozone levels between the surface and 5 km altitude increased 50– 110%. “
Next, I looked up the methods behind the NASA TOMS aerosol index, since that was used as one of the modeling methods in this study. Aerosols include smoke, dust, and volcanic ash. The concentration of aerosols in the air is determined by how much light and ultraviolet radiation is blocked by the air mass.
Finally, I looked at the AIRS CO data, that was used to provide another map of the traveling air mass. This system works by using infrared, microwave, and visible sensors to create and atmospheric map. This atmospheric sounding technique can accurately measure the abundance of gases in the atmosphere.
Addendum:
This article relates to findings about how air pollution is a cross-state issue, since ozone and carbon monoxide produced by forest fires in Alaska are capable of traveling thousands of kilometers to Houston and the Azores Islands and leaving tangible signs of their presence, such as hazy skies. This is also a much bigger scale, since multiple nations are affected by these fires. This means that there is not only the immediate affects of the blaze to worry about, but also collateral damage from pollutants reaching different states and countries.