Modeling of Seasonal Trace Gas and Particulate Emissions from Vegetation Fires in Southern Africa

Principal Investigator:

Stefania Korontzi

Fire is widespread in southern African savannas with important implications for tropical and global atmospheric chemistry. The dry season typically lasts from May to October and fire behavior can vary widely throughout the season. The main aim of this research is to address the seasonal variations of biomass burning emissions and the associated impacts on emissions quantification. The complexity of the emissions process is described using a spatially and temporally explicit modeling approach that integrates recently published satellite-driven fuel load amounts, satellite burned area products (MODIS, GBA-2000, GLOBSCAR), and empirically derived parameterizations of combustion completeness and emission factors.

To represent fire behavior characteristics, land cover is classified into grasslands and woodlands using the MODIS percent tree cover product. The combustion completeness is modeled as a function of grass fuel moisture and the emission factors as a function of grass fuel moisture in grasslands and fuel mixture in woodlands. Fuel moisture is derived from a fuel load model and by using satellite vegetation index time series. Emissions estimates for various atmospheric species, many of which are modeled for the first time, will be reported and compared with other regional sources of pyrogenic emissions and global biomass burning and fossil fuel emissions. The methodology and results have direct implications for national reporting of savanna fire emissions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Example publication: S. Korontzi, D. P. Roy, C. O. Justice, and D. E. Ward (2004). Modeling and sensitivity analysis of fire emissions in southern Africa during SAFARI 2000, Remote Sensing of Environment, 92(2), 255-275.