Modeling of Emissions from Open Biomass Burning in Asia Using the BlueSky Framework

Open biomass burning (excluding biofuels) is an important contributor to air pollution in the Asian region. Estimation of emissions from fires, however, has been problematic, primarily because of uncertainty in the size and location of sources and in their temporal and spatial variability. Hence, more comprehensive tools to estimate wildfire emissions and that can characterize their temporal and spatial variability are needed. Furthermore, an emission processing system that can generate speciated, gridded, and temporally allocated emissions is needed to support air-quality modeling studies over Asia. For these reasons, a biomass-burning emissions modeling system based on satellite imagery was developed to better account for the spatial and temporal distributions of emissions. The BlueSky Framework, which was developed by the USDA Forest Service and US EPA, was used to develop the Asian biomass-burning emissions modeling system. The sub-models used for this study were the Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS), CONSUME, and the Emissions Production Model (EPM). Our domain covers not only Asia but also Siberia and part of central Asia to assess the large boreal fires in the region. The MODIS fire products and vegetation map were used in this study. Using the developed modeling system, biomass-burning emissions were estimated during April and July 2008, and the results were compared with previous studies. Our results show good to fair agreement with those of GFEDv3 for most regions, ranging from 9.7% in East Asia to 52% in Siberia. The SMOKE modeling system was combined with this system to generate three-dimensional model-ready emissions employing the fire-plume rise algorithm. This study suggests a practicable and maintainable methodology for supporting Asian air-quality modeling studies and to help understand the impact of air-pollutant emissions on Asian air quality.