Influence of fires in Eastern Europe on particulate matter levels
CETEMPS took part to a study led by the Aerosol Remote Sensing group of the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (ISAC) of the National Research Council (CNR), concerning the fingerprint of wildfires on the particulate load at European scale and published on the open access journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. In the frame of the study, it was developed a method that combines satellite observations of fires with an atmospheric trajectory model to evaluate the influence of fires on the aerosol optical depth at the continental scale.
From a simulation of the years 2002-2007, it comes out that fires related to agricultural practices, in particular in former URSS countries, modulate the annual cycle of the aerosol optical depth throughout Europe, creating a sort of haze that might have yet unrecognized effects on the radiative balance and the air quality of the continent.