Articles | Volume 15, issue 20
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-11513-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-11513-2015
Research article
 | 
20 Oct 2015
Research article |  | 20 Oct 2015

Cold Smoke: smoke-induced density currents cause unexpected smoke transport near large wildfires

N. P. Lareau and C. B. Clements

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Cited articles

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This paper presents first observations of smoke-induced density currents, which are a boundary-layer flow phenomenon resulting from radiative shading by wild fire smoke. Our analysis uses a mobile Doppler lidar to reveal the anatomy and evolution of one such density current in northern California. The results show that these density currents can flow counter to the ambient wind and spread over long distances (e.g. 25km), causing unexpected smoke impacts.
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