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Detection of Wildfire Pollution in the Arctic using a Network of Ground-based FTIR Spectrometers

Wildfires present a considerable perturbation to atmospheric pollution in the form of particulate matter and trace gas emissions that have a significant impact on air quality and climate. The influence of Boreal wildfires on the Arctic is of particular importance as these emissions may be transported poleward over large distances. It has been noted that wildfire activity in high-latitude Boreal regions is expected to increase in the future as a result of climate change, however, the impacts of these emissions on the Arctic remains greatly uncertain due to the variability of emissions, and of the frequency and intensity of events, while the scarcity of observations in the Arctic makes quantifying the influence difficult. In this talk, I will discuss the use of a network of high-latitude ground-based Fourier (FTIR) spectrometers to detect wildfire pollution events in the Arctic, while the GEOS-Chem global chemical transport model is implemented to quantify the influence of different wildfire source regions. Additionally, case studies of ammonia (NH3) emissions from the 2014 and 2017 Canadian wildfires will also be shown.