Rocky Mountain Research Station

Title: The tropical forest and fire emissions experiment: Laboratory fire measurement and synthesis of campaign data

Author: Yokelson, R. J.; Christian, T. J.; Karl, T. G.; Guenther, A.

Date: 2008

Source: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 8: 3509-3527.

Description: As part of the Tropical Forest and Fire Emissions Experiment (TROFFEE), tropical forest fuels were burned in a large, biomass-fire simulation facility and the smoke was characterized with open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), proton-transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS), gas chromatography (GC), GC/PTRMS, and filter sampling of the particles. In most cases, about one-third of the fuel chlorine ended up in the particles and about one-half remained in the ash. About 50% of the mass of non-methane organic compounds (NMOC) emitted by these fires could be identified with the available instrumentation. The lab fire emission factors (EF, g compound emitted per kg dry fuel burned) were coupled with EF obtained during the TROFFEE airborne and ground-based field campaigns. This revealed several types of EF dependence on parameters such as the ratio of flaming to smoldering combustion and fuel characteristics. The synthesis of data from the different TROFFEE platforms was also used to derive EF for all the measured species for both primary deforestation fires and pasture maintenance fires - the two main types of biomass burning in the Amazon.

Keywords: tropical forest, fire emissions, campaign data, Tropical Forest and Fire Emissions Experiment (TROFFEE)

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Citation

Yokelson, R. J.; Christian, T. J.; Karl, T. G.; Guenther, A.  2008.  The tropical forest and fire emissions experiment: Laboratory fire measurement and synthesis of campaign data.   Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 8: 3509-3527..