Study Looks At Role Of Wild Fire Smoke In Climate Change
Study Looks At Role Of Wild Fire Smoke In Climate Change
05 September 2017
published by http://wyomingpublicmedia.org
USA – While Wyoming hasnt had many forest fires this summer, plenty of smoke has blown in from fires in other states like Montana, California and Oregon. Atmospheric scientists at the University of Wyoming have been studying the soot from those fires to find out what role it plays in climate change. Theyre chasing fires around the West this summer doing their research in a state-of-the-art mobile research lab.
UW Professor Shane Murphy said cars and power plants emit mostly black carbon which is the third largest cause of climate warming after carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. But forest fire smoke also emits something called brown carbonthat’s when the particles of soot are coated with tarsand Murphy said that no one knows what effect it has on warming.
Right now, climate models dont really include brown carbon, he said. They need to add that and theyre working on adding that. But right now theres a lot of uncertainty on how important it is, how long does it last, does it evaporate, does it get aged out as the smoke goes down wind? So were trying to figure those things out.
The current theory is that brown carbon, which appears as white smoke, may actually have a cooling effect on climate because of its light color. But Murphy said thats never been proven and its important to find out the truth because, as western states are growing hotter, larger and more frequent forest fires are likely.
And so one of the things were focusing on is what fraction of the black and brown carbon comes from biomass burning because that, unlike the other sources you control, is probably going to increase in the future, right? Its not going to go away and it might get worse, said Murphy.
He said this is the first in a three-year study to answer the riddle of brown carbons role in climate change.
