Open AccessImpact of the June 2018 Saddleworth Moor wildfires on air quality in northern England
Author(s) -
Ailish M. Graham,
Richard J. Pope,
James B. McQuaid,
Kirsty Pringle,
S. R. Arnold,
Antonio Giovanni Bruno,
D. P. Moore,
Jeremy J. Harrison,
Martyn Chipperfield,
Richard Rigby,
Alberto Sanchez-Marroquín,
James Lee,
Shona Wilde,
Richard Siddans,
Brian J. Kerridge,
Lucy J. Ventress,
Barry G. Latter
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
environmental research communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2515-7620
DOI - 10.1088/2515-7620/ab7b92
Subject(s) - plume , trace gas , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , ozone , air quality index , meteorology , panache , smoke , atmosphere (unit) , air pollution , aerosol , geography , chemistry , geology , organic chemistry
The June 2018 Saddleworth Moor fires were some of the largest UK wildfires on record and lasted for approximately three weeks. They emitted large quantities of smoke, trace gases and aerosols which were transported downwind over the highly populated regions of Manchester and Liverpool. Surface observations of PM 2.5 indicate that concentrations were 4–5.5 times higher than the recent seasonal average. State-of-the-art satellite measurements of total column carbon monoxide (TCCO) from the TROPOMI instrument on the Sentinel 5—Precursor (S5P) platform, coupled with measurements from a flight of the UK BAe-146–301 research aircraft, are used to quantify the substantial enhancement in emitted trace gases. The aircraft measured plume enhancements with near-fire CO and PM 2.5 concentrations >1500 ppbv and >125 μ g m −3 (compared to ∼100 ppbv and ∼5 μ g m −3 background concentrations). Downwind fire-plume ozone (O 3 ) values were larger than the near-fire location, indicating O 3 production with distance from source. The near-fire O 3 :CO ratio was (ΔO 3 /ΔCO) 0.001 ppbv/ppbv, increasing downwind to 0.060–0.105 ppbv/ppbv, suggestive of O 3 production enhancement downwind of the fires. Emission rates of CO and CO 2 ranged between 1.07 (0.07–4.69) kg s −1 and 13.7 (1.73–50.1) kg s −1 , respectively, similar to values expected from a medium sized power station.