WRF-Chem Simulations of Aerosol Transport During the Attika Forest Fire Event of July 2018

On 23rd July 2018 during an intense heat wave, two large fires broke out in Attika, a region in the central-southern part of Greece. Attika Regional Authorities declared a state of emergency and the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism was activated to oversee and manage the effects of this event. Subsequently, burn area delineation maps were produced as a way to evaluate the damage caused by these fires. For example, for July 26th maps, which is near the fire episode's end, approximately 41 Km2 were burned during this event. A side effect of these fires are the large emission of aerosol pollutants (smoke) and other gases generated during the burning process much of which can be very detrimental to human health. In this work and as part of an international collaborative validation effort on air quality methodologies; a WRF -Chem and source generation model was tasked to model the amount of gases and particles emitted during this event. Here in, we present a model perspective of the evolution and transport characteristics of aerosols particles and other gases (CO, NOx) generated during this intensive period of burning over Attika Greece.