Roxanne Vingarzan

TL;DR: In this paper, parent and alkyl PAHs were quantified in suspended particulates and sediments (345 samples) from the Fraser River system, British Columbia, Canada, and the best potential to distinguish natural and anthropogenic sources is exhibited by ratios of the principal mass 178, 202, 228 and 276 parent PAH, 1,7/2,6+1,7-DMP (dimethylphenanthrene), the phenanthrene/anthracene and fluoranthene/pyrene alkyal PAH series and several less commonly applied PA

TL;DR: A survey of the literature was conducted to review historical and current surface ozone data from background stations in Canada, United States and around the world for the purpose of characterizing background levels and trends, present plausible explanations for observed trends and explore projections of future ozone levels as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the NRL Aerosol analysis and prediction system (NAAPS) model to forecast the transport of smoke from Siberian biomass fires, which resulted in enhancements in summer background CO and O3 of 23-37 and 5-9 ppbv, respectively, at 10 sites in Alaska, Canada and the Pacific Northwest.

TL;DR: In this paper, a multiple linear regression model incorporating meteorological parameters, annual cycles and random error due to serial correlation was used to investigate the annual and summer season ozone trends between 1985 and 2000 at five stations in the Greater Vancouver/Fraser Valley area of southern British Columbia.

Abstract: . Biomass burning emissions emit a significant amount of trace gases and aerosols and can affect atmospheric chemistry and radiative forcing for hundreds or thousands of kilometres downwind. They can also contribute to exceedances of air quality standards and have negative impacts on human health. We present a case study of an intense wildfire plume from Siberia that affected the air quality across the Pacific Northwest on 6–10 July 2012. Using satellite measurements (MODIS True Colour RGB imagery and MODIS AOD), we track the wildfire smoke plume from its origin in Siberia to the Pacific Northwest where subsidence ahead of a subtropical Pacific High made the plume settle over the region. The normalized enhancement ratios of O3 and PM1 relative to CO of 0.26 and 0.08 are consistent with a plume aged 6–10 days. The aerosol mass in the plume was mainly submicron in diameter (PM1 ∕ PM2.5 = 0.96) and the part of the plume sampled at the Whistler High Elevation Monitoring Site (2182 m a.s.l.) was 88 % organic material. Stable atmospheric conditions along the coast limited the initial entrainment of the plume and caused local anthropogenic emissions to build up. A synthesis of air quality from the regional surface monitoring networks describes changes in ambient O3 and PM2.5 during the event and contrasts them to baseline air quality estimates from the AURAMS chemical transport model without wildfire emissions. Overall, the smoke plume contributed significantly to the exceedances in O3 and PM2.5 air quality standards and objectives that occurred at several communities in the region during the event. Peak enhancements in 8 h O3 of 34–44 ppbv and 24 h PM2.5 of 10–32 µg m−3 were attributed to the effects of the smoke plume across the Interior of British Columbia and at the Whistler Peak High Elevation Site. Lesser enhancements of 10–12 ppbv for 8 h O3 and of 4–9 µg m−3 for 24 h PM2.5 occurred across coastal British Columbia and Washington State. The findings suggest that the large air quality impacts seen during this event were a combination of the efficient transport of the plume across the Pacific, favourable entrainment conditions across the BC interior, and the large scale of the Siberian wildfire emissions. A warming climate increases the risk of increased wildfire activity and events of this scale reoccurring under appropriate meteorological conditions.