An investigation of the impact of Canadian wildfires on US air quality using model, satellite, and ground measurements

Xue, Zhixin; Udaysankar, Nair; Christopher, Sundar A.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5497-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5497-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5497-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 11

Research article

|

04 Jun 2025

Research article |

| 04 Jun 2025

An investigation of the impact of Canadian wildfires on US air quality using model, satellite, and ground measurements

Zhixin Xue, Nair Udaysankar, and Sundar A. Christopher

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5497-2025-supplement

Data sets

Air Quality System Data Mart US Environmental Protection Agency https://www.epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data

MCD19A2 MODIS/Terra+Aqua Land Aerosol Optical Depth Daily L2G Global 1km SIN Grid V006 Alexei Lyapustin and Yujie Wang https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MCD19A2.006

Complete ERA5 from 1940: Fifth generation of ECMWF atmospheric reanalyses of the global climate Hans Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.143582cf

Model code and software

A description of the advanced research WRF model version 4 (https://github.com/wrf-model/WRF/tree/release-v4.2.2/.github, https://github.com/wrf-model/WRF) William C. Skamarock et al. https://doi.org/10.5065/1dfh-6p97

The Fire INventory from NCAR (FINN): a high resolution global model to estimate the emissions from open burning (https://www2.acom.ucar.edu/modeling/finn-fire-inventory-ncar) C. Wiedinmyer et al. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-4-625-2011

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Short summary

Canadian wildfires in August 2018 significantly increased surface air pollution across the United States (US) – by up to 69 % in some areas. Using model, satellite, and ground measurements, the study highlights how weather patterns and long-range smoke transport drive pollution. The northwestern US was most affected by Canadian wildfire smoke, while the northeastern US experienced the least impact. These findings indicate the growing concern that wildfire smoke poses to air quality across the US.