Photochemical potential of forest fire smoke

Abstract

A stainless steel laboratory chamber to hold the entire combustion products from a small scale pine needle fire was useful for measuring the photochemical activity of pine needle fire smoke. Particle size distributions indicated that the nucleation of small numbers of submicron particles was sufficient to increase the amount of light a plume would scatter. Artificial daylight irradiation led to ozone and oxidant formation and typical diurnal Los Angeles type photochemical cycles were observed. Other things being equal, planning controlled forest and agricultural burns during periods of low photochemical potential (at night under clear skies) could reduce the intensity of secondary nucleation and consequent light reflectivity. Gaseous emission factors were calculated by extrapolating the concentration vs. time curves to zero time to obtain an initial concentration of each pollutant.

Citation

Benner, W. Henry; Urone, Paul; McMahon, Charles K.; Ryan, Paul. 1977. Photochemical potential of forest fire smoke. In: The 70th Annual Meeting of the Air Pollution Control Association. Toronto, Ontario: June 20-June 24, 1977. 14 p.