Modeling spatio-temporal variability in biomass burning emission factors

About the thesis

Fire emissions play an important role in atmospheric chemistry, but a thorough quantification of the emitted trace gases hinders progress in many different research fields. In this thesis the author aims to better understand the factors that control the partitioning of combusted carbon into various trace gases, using ground based measurements and a suite of satellite data. More specifically, new models were developed that use satellite derived data on vegetation characteristics and moisture conditions to better represent the spatio-temporal variability in measured emission factors for several trace gases, most importantly for CO2, CO, and CH4. When the partitioning and absolute amounts of carbon losses are known, we are in a better position to understand the role fires play in explaining interannual variations in growth rates of several atmospheric trace gases and to estimate the amount of carbon emitted in the deforestation process.