The impact of satellite-derived biomass burning emission estimates on air quality

Various methods to generate satellite-based biomass burning emission estimates have recently been developed for their use in air quality models. Each method has different assumptions, data Sources, and algorithms. This paper compares three different satellite-based biomass burning emission estimates against a control case of no biomass burning and ground-based biomass estimate in an air quality model. We have chosen August 2002 for comparison, since all data sets were readily available. In addition, there was significant wildfire activity during this month. Our results suggest that there is large uncertainty in the emission estimates which results in both under-prediction and over-prediction of PM2.5 concentration fields.