Articles | Volume 26, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-6629-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-6629-2026
Research article
 | 
18 May 2026
Research article |  | 18 May 2026

Representing extreme fires and their radiative effects in a global climate model via variable scaling of emissions

Elizabeth Quaye, Ben T. Johnson, James M. Haywood, Guido R. van der Werf, Roland Vernooij, Stephen A. Sitch, and Tom Eames

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Cited articles

AERONET: Aerosol Optical Depth, North America, September 2020 level 2 data, AERONET [data set], https://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/new_web/draw_map_display_aod_v3.html?level=3 (last access: 14 May 2026), 2020. 
Andela, N., Morton, D. C., Giglio, L., Paugam, R., Chen, Y., Hantson, S., van der Werf, G. R., and Randerson, J. T.: The Global Fire Atlas of individual fire size, duration, speed and direction, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 11, 529–552, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-529-2019, 2019. 
Baars, H., Radenz, M., Floutsi, A. A., Engelmann, R., Althausen, D., Heese, B., Ansmann, A., Flament, T., Dabas, A., Trapon, D., Reitebuch, O., Bley, S., and Wandinger, U.: Californian Wildfire Smoke Over Europe: A First Example of the Aerosol Observing Capabilities of Aeolus Compared to Ground-Based Lidar, Geophys. Res. Lett., 48, e2020GL092194, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL092194, 2021. 
Boucher, O.: Atmospheric Aerosols: Properties and Climate Impacts, Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9649-1, 2015. 
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We find aerosol optical depths in a global climate model are overestimated during extreme wildfire events if emissions are scaled up by a factor of two, typically applied to improve simulated aerosol on seasonal–annual timescales. We propose a technique where a variable scaling factor is determined by fuel consumption, improving correlation in five fire-affected areas. We explore the impact of this change on aerosol radiative effects, during extreme events and on broader space and time scales.
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