Pyrocumulonimbus Events over British Columbia in August 2017: Results from the NASA GEOS Earth System Model

Description

Model data associated with the manuscript submitted in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Journal, titled, " Pyrocumulonimbus Events over British Columbia in 2017: The Long-term Transport and Radiative Impacts of Smoke Aerosols in the Stratosphere". Abstract. Interactions of meteorology with wildfires in British Columbia, Canada during August 2017 led to three major pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) events that resulted in the injection of large amounts of smoke aerosols and other combustion products at the local upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). These plumes of UTLS smoke with elevated values of aerosol extinction and backscatter compared to the background state were readily tracked by multiple satellite-based instruments as they spread across the Northern Hemisphere (NH). The plumes resided in the lower stratosphere for about 8-10 months following the fire injections. To investigate the radiative impacts of these events on the Earth system, we performed a number of simulations with the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM). Observations from multiple remote-sensing instruments were used to calibrate the injection parameters (location, amount, composition, and heights) and optical properties of the smoke aerosols in the model. The resulting simulations of three-dimensional smoke transport were evaluated for a year from the day of injections using daily observations from OMPS-LP (Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite Limb Profiler). The model simulated rate of ascent, hemispheric spread, and residence time of the smoke aerosols in the stratosphere are in close agreement with OMPS-LP observations. We found that both aerosol self-lofting and the large-scale atmospheric motion play important roles in lifting the smoke plumes from near the tropopause altitudes (~12 km) to about 22-23 km into the atmosphere. Further, our estimations of the radiative impacts of the pyroCb-emitted smoke aerosols showed that the smoke caused additional warming of the atmosphere by about 0.6-1 W/m2 (zonal mean) that persisted for about 2-3 months after the injections in regions north of 40oN. The surface experienced a comparable magnitude of cooling. The atmospheric warming is mainly located in the stratosphere, coincident with the location of the smoke plumes, leading to an increase in zonal mean shortwave (SW) heating rates of 0.02-0.04 K/day during September 2017.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
21 The files contain simulated aerosol extinction and SSA at three wavelengths (355 nm, 532 nm, 1064 nm) for comparison with ground-based lidar on Aug 22, 2017, over Leipzig, Germany. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/pyrocb_exp.inst3d_532nm_ext_v.20170822_1800z.nc4
8 Timeseries of model-derived stratospheric smoke (BC +BrC) aerosol mass (kilotons), with the minimum, maximum, and mean estimates. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/Stratospheric_pyrocbaerosolmass_decayrate.csv
21 The file contains simulated zonal mean net (pyroCb - CTL) surface and TOA radiative flux for 3 months after the injections. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/Radiativeforcing_netsurfaceflux.nc
21 Timeseries of simulated zonal means of stratospheric smoke AOD. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/StratAOD675nm_smoke_timeseries.nc
21 Files containing information to calculate the Angstrom exponent for comparison with SAGE-III data. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/pyrocb_ext.inst3d_ext-520nm_v.20170903_1800z.nc4
21 The horizontal and vertical locations of smoke plumes 3 weeks after the injections. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/pyrocb_exp.inst3d_aer_v.20170903_1800z.nc4
21 Timeseries of total AOD from the GEOS model, averaged over the Northern hemisphere for atmospheric columns extending from the top of the atmosphere (TOA) to (a) 14 km, (b) 16 km, (c) 20 km, and (d) 22 km. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/Vertical_distribution_stratAOD.nc
21 Aerosol mass and extinction profiles on the day of pyroCb injections, along with the simulated wind fields at the time. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/pyrocb_exp.inst3d_aer_v.20170813_0600z.nc4
21 The files contain simulated aerosol extinction and SSA at three wavelengths (355 nm, 532 nm, 1064 nm) for comparison with ground-based lidar on Aug 22, 2017, over Leipzig, Germany. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/pyrocb_exp.inst3d_355nm_ext_v.20170822_1800z.nc4
21 Zonally averaged shortwave (SW) heating rates for September 2017 (K/day) due to the pyroCb aerosols over Northern Hemisphere in the model. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/SWheatingrate.nc
21 Aerosol extinction profiles along CALIOP overpass. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/pyrocb_exp.inst3d_aer_misc_v.20170814_2000z.nc4
21 Files containing information to calculate the Angstrom exponent for comparison with SAGE-III data. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/pyrocb_exp.inst3d_ext-1021nm_v.20170903_1800z.nc4
21 The horizontal and vertical locations of smoke plumes 2 weeks after the injections. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/pyrocb_exp.inst3d_aer_v.20170827_1800z.nc4
21 Aerosol extinction profiles along CALIOP overpass. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/pyrocb_exp.inst3d_aer_misc_v.20170813_1100z.nc4
21 The horizontal and vertical locations of smoke plumes 1 week after the injections. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/pyrocb_exp.inst3d_aer_v.20170820_1800z.nc4
21 The horizontal and vertical locations of smoke plumes a month after the injections. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/pyrocb_exp.inst3d_aer_v.20170913_1800z.nc4
21 Timeseries of simulated zonal means of the total (smoke + background aerosol) stratospheric AOD. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/StratAOD675nm_total_timeseries.nc
8 The file contains plume top heights and its evolution for a month from the injections (on Aug 13), diagnosed from the model for different assumptions of injection parameters, optical properties. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/Plumetop_heights_timeseries.csv
21 The files contain simulated aerosol extinction and SSA at three wavelengths (355 nm, 532 nm, 1064 nm) for comparison with ground-based lidar on Aug 22, 2017, over Leipzig, Germany. https://data.nasa.gov/docs/datasets/public/pyrocb/pyrocb_exp.inst3d_1064nm_ext_v.20170822_1800z.nc4

Tags

  • global-model
  • pyrocb-event-2017
  • aerosols
  • wildfires

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