Remote Measurement of Spatially Resolved Pyrogenic Emissions at Biomass Fire Fronts

Abstract An aerial remote sensing investigation of a severe wildfire occurring in northern California was conducted in 2020. Quantified, spatially resolved measurements of pyrogenic ammonia, ethene, nitrous acid, methanol, and carbon dioxide emissions and associated emission ratios were obtained at the actual fire front sources. The emission ratio field measurements agreed to within factors of 1–5 with community consensus values drawn from the Smoke Emissions Repository Application and connote a pathway for reducing the uncertainties assigned to those quantities. Such measurements provide a link between the microscale chemical‐dynamic processes in wildfire outflow plumes obtained by in situ sensors and the macroscale transport information derived from space‐based instrumentation, filling an essential role in efforts to characterize pyrogenic emission and teleconnection processes.