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Suppression of “Handover” Processes in a Mountain Convective Boundary Layer due to Persistent Wildfire Smoke

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Abstract

Widespread and persistent summer multi-day episodes of dense wildfire smoke affected western Canada in 2017 and 2018. These events often occurred under otherwise clear-sky, anticyclonic weather conditions and can have significant impacts on surface temperatures, air quality, and surface radiation and energy budgets. Based on upward-pointing lidar observations, vertical temperature soundings and numerical mesoscale modelling for a mountain in south-western British Columbia, Canada, we propose a previously undocumented stability-related impact of wildfire smoke layers on mountain meteorology. This positive feedback (that maintains layer structure and extends the lifetime of layers) appears to suppress mountain “handover processes”. Smoke days are characterized by more stable vertical temperature profiles when compared to clear-sky conditions, and are marked by a lack of diurnal variability in boundary-layer structure in lidar backscatter imagery. We expect the processes described to have general application and propose more detailed aerosol modelling to investigate the physical details of the process.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for support to individual researchers and graduate students involved in this work. The lidar was purchased under NSERC affiliated grants held by Dr. Alan Bertram. We are grateful to Grouse Mountain, who permitted, encouraged, and supported this work. Eric Bowkett was particularly helpful in assisting us with logistics including access to the mountain. Eric Leinberger did a wonderful job with the figures while Dylan Weyell and family kindly provided invaluable field and technical support, including the siting of the lidar. Dan Moore kindly assisted with our statistics. Finally, we are grateful for the constructive comments provided by three anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Atmospheric Science/Geography, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2, Canada

    Madison Ferrara, Carrington Pomeroy, Ian G. McKendry & Roland Stull

  2. Air Quality Research Division, Environment Canada, 4905 Dufferin St, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Kevin Strawbridge

Authors
  1. Madison Ferrara
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  2. Carrington Pomeroy
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  3. Ian G. McKendry
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  4. Roland Stull
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  5. Kevin Strawbridge
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Correspondence to Ian G. McKendry.

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Appendix

Appendix

figure a

MODIS terra images for peak smoke days in 2017 and 2018. Red dots show active fire sources while orange circle is Saturna Island.

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Ferrara, M., Pomeroy, C., McKendry, I.G. et al. Suppression of “Handover” Processes in a Mountain Convective Boundary Layer due to Persistent Wildfire Smoke. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 175, 297–308 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-020-00505-0

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