The Relationship Between MAIAC Smoke Plume Heights and Surface PM

Abstract

Abstract Biomass burning is a source of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) air pollution, which adversely impacts human health. However, quantifying the health effects from biomass burning PM 2.5 is difficult. Monitoring networks generally lack the spatial density needed to capture the heterogeneity of biomass burning smoke. Satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) can be used to fill spatial gaps but does not distinguish surface‐level aerosols. Plume height (PH) observations may provide constraints on the vertical distribution of smoke and its impact on surface concentrations. We assessed PH characteristics from Multi‐Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) and evaluated its correlation with colocated PM 2.5 and AOD measurements. PH is generally highest over the western United States. The ratio PM 2.5 :AOD generally decreases with increasing PH:PBLH (planetary boundary layer height), showing that PH has the potential to refine surface PM 2.5 estimates for collections of smoke events.