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. Vegetation fires emit large quantities of aerosol into theatmosphere, impacting regional air quality and climate. Previous work hasused comparisons of simulated and observed aerosol optical depth (AOD) inregions heavily impacted by fires to suggest that emissions of aerosol particlesfrom fires may be underestimated by a factor of 2–5. Here we use surface,aircraft and satellite observations made over the Amazon during September2012, along with a global aerosol model to improve understanding of aerosolemissions from vegetation fires. We apply three different satellite-derivedfire emission datasets (FINN, GFED, GFAS) in the model. Daily mean aerosolemissions in these datasets vary by up to a factor of 3.7 over the Amazonduring this period, highlighting the considerable uncertainty in emissions.We find variable agreement between the model and observed aerosol massconcentrations. The model reproduces observed aerosol concentrationsover deforestation fires well in the western Amazon during dry season conditionswith FINN or GFED emissions and during dry–wet transition season conditionswith GFAS emissions. In contrast, the model underestimates aerosolconcentrations over savanna fires in the Cerrado environment east of theAmazon Basin with all three fire emission datasets. The model generallyunderestimates AOD compared to satellite and ground stations, even when themodel reproduces the observed vertical profile of aerosol massconcentration. We suggest it is likely caused by uncertainties in thecalculation of AOD, which are as large as ∼90  %, with thelargest sensitivities due to uncertainties in water uptake and relativehumidity. Overall, we do not find evidence that particulate emissions fromfires are systematically underestimated in the Amazon region and we cautionagainst using comparison with AOD to constrain particulate emissions fromfires.

Biomass burning aerosol over the Amazon: analysis of aircraft, surface and satellite observations using a global aerosol model