In many regions across the globe, including the U.S., wildland fires are a significant source of air pollution and can be a major hazard to public health. In addition, smoke can pose a serious threat to wildland firefighters who may be exposed to dense smoke. Smoke management concerns are among the top impediments to prescribed burning due to local community smoke exposure, and smoke produced by prescribed fire can trigger violations of state and federal air quality standards. Forest Service smoke research focuses on several key areas including emission characterization, emissions inventories, and smoke impacts.

Smoke and air quality research are important areas of fire research because:

• Wildland fires are a major source of pollutants that result in both air quality impacts and climate interactions.

• Wildland fire smoke can trigger severe pollution episodes with substantial effects on public health.

• Fire emissions can degrade air quality at considerable distances downwind, hampering efforts by air regulators to meet air standards.

• Fires are also a major global source of aerosols, which affect the climate system by absorbing and scattering radiation and altering the optical properties, coverage, and lifetime of clouds.

• Understanding the response of wildland fire emissions to climate variability and changing landscapes is crucial to assessing future air pollution and potential climate feedbacks.

Featured Work 

• Forest Service scientists initiated a national assessment on smoke science to provide a foundation for building nationwide smoke management options across all land management jurisdictions. The assessment focuses on wildland fire smoke management issues, finding potential solutions to minimize the negative impacts of smoke on air quality, and identifying research gaps to support the development of these solutions.

• We synthesized wildland fire emission data from over 40 studies to create an updated, comprehensive database of emission factors. The updated emission factor database provides emission factors for nearly 200 gaseous and particulate pollutants emitted by wildland fires. The emission factor database has been integrated into the most recent version of the First Order Fire Effects Model (FOFEM).

• Our scientists are developing more accurate forecasts of fire and smoke conditions to protect public and firefighter health as part of our Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE).

• We worked to understand how the confluence of wildfire smoke and COVID-19 could affect infections and mortality, both in the firefighting community and the broader population.