References

ACPD

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions

ACPD

1680-7375

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acpd-7-6687-2007

Emissions from forest fires near Mexico City

Yokelson

¹ Urbanski

² Atlas

³ Toohey

⁴ Alvarado

⁵ Crounse

⁶ Wennberg

⁷ Fisher

⁴ Wold

² Campos

⁸ Adachi

⁹ ¹⁰ Buseck

P. R.

⁹ ¹⁰ Hao

W. M.

University of Montana, Department of Chemistry, Missoula, MT 59812, USA

USDA Forest Service, Fire Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, MT, USA

University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, USA

University of Colorado, Department of Chemistry, Boulder, USA

University of Washington, College of Forest Resources, Seattle, USA

Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA

Divisions of Engineering and Applied Science and Geological and Planetary Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA

National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA

School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

16 05 2007

7 3 6687 6718

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The emissions of NOx and HCN (per unit amount of fuel burned) from fires in the pine-savannas that dominate the mountains surrounding Mexico City (MC) are about 2 times higher than normally observed for forest burning. The NH3 emissions are about average for forest burning. The NOx/VOC mass ratio for the MC-area mountain fires was ~0.38, which is similar to the NOx/VOC ratio in the MC urban area emissions inventory of 0.43, but much larger than the NOx/VOC ratio for tropical forest fires in Brazil (~0.068). The nitrogen enrichment in the fire emissions may be due to deposition of nitrogen-containing pollutants in the outflow from the MC urban area. This effect may occur worldwide wherever biomass burning coexists with large urban areas (e.g. the tropics, southeastern US, Los Angeles Basin). The molar emission ratio HCN/CO for the mountain fires was ~0.0128±0.0096: 2–9 times higher than widely used literature values for biomass burning. The MC-area/downwind molar ratio of HCN/CO is about 0.003±0.0003. Thus, if other types of biomass burning are relatively insignificant, the mountain fires may be contributing about 23% of the CO production in the MC-area (~98–100 W and 19–20 N). Comparing the PM10/CO mass ratio in the MC Metropolitan Area emission inventory (0.011) to the PM1/CO mass ratio for the mountain fires (0.133) then suggests that these fires could produce as much as ~78% of the fine particle mass generated in the MC-area.

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