Collow contributes to Canadian and Global Smoke Transport Visualizations

Do you recall the smell of wildfire smoke in parts of the U.S. in the summer of 2023 and being surprised that this was due to wildfires in ... Canada? In fact, that was the most intense wildfire season on record for Canada. Fires from Alberta in western Canada combined with wildfires in Quebec in eastern Canada contributed to thick smoke that affected air quality over much of the continent. Allison Collow (610.1/UMBC) provided scientific insight for two visualizations from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS), the first being "Long-range Transport of 2023 Canadian Wildfire Smoke into the Northeastern United States." "When intense fires loft smoke above the atmospheric boundary layer, it can be transported thousands of miles across continents and oceans. An example of this occurred during the month of June 2023 and is visualized ... using aerosol information from the forward processing configuration of NASA’s Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS)" (i.e., GEOS-FP). With the combination of pressure systems and circulations, "from May 31 – July 7, 2023, smoke from wildfires in Canada is seen traveling thousands of miles, blanketing various regions of the United States and particularly impacting the eastern U.S. with record-breaking poor air quality," demonstrating that smoke can transport far from its source and affect air quality and health conditions in faraway locations.

Dr. Collow contributed to this second SVS Global Smoke Forecast Visualization, which updates daily, is available online to the public, and appears on the Earth Information Center screens in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and on the Hyperwall in the NASA Headquarters lobby. "In addition to toxic chemicals, smoke emitted by wildfires contains particles with diameter smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5). PM2.5 is dangerous to breathe in because the particles are small enough to penetrate the lungs and then enter the bloodstream. {Again], wildfire smoke can travel thousands of miles, impacting populations distant from the source. It is therefore important that smoke is tracked and forecasts are provided to alert the public of impending poor air quality. Earth system models that couple aerosols with meteorology are valuable tools for providing air quality forecasts. NASA’s GEOS-FP is one such system that provides near-real-time analyses and forecasts of aerosols in addition to fields necessary for forecasting the weather twice daily each day at 00z and 12z (midnight and noon UTC, the worldwide time standard)."