ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-10-6461-2010 A multi-decadal history of biomass burning plume heights identified using aerosol index measurements Guan H. 1 2 Esswein R. 1 2 Lopez J. 1 2 Bergstrom R. 1 2 Warnock A. 3 Follette-Cook M. 4 5 Fromm M. 4 Iraci L. T. 2 Bay Area Environmental Research Institute, Sonoma, CA, USA NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA Remote Sensing Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC, USA currently at: Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology Center, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA 16 07 2010 10 14 6461 6469 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/10/6461/2010/acp-10-6461-2010.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/10/6461/2010/acp-10-6461-2010.pdf

We have quantified the relationship between Aerosol Index (AI) measurements and plume height for young biomass burning plumes using coincident Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) measurements. This linear relationship allows the determination of high-altitude plumes wherever AI data are available, and it provides a data set for validating global fire plume heights in chemistry transport models. We find that all plumes detected from June 2006 to February 2009 with an AI value ≥9 are located at altitudes higher than 5 km. Older high-altitude plumes have lower AI values than young plumes at similar altitudes. We have examined available AI data from the OMI and TOMS instruments (1978–2009) and find that large AI plumes occur more frequently over North America than over Australia or Russia/Northeast Asia. According to the derived relationship, during this time interval, 181 plumes, in various stages of their evolution, reached altitudes above 8 km.

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