Wildland fire emissions, carbon, and climate: Emission factors

While the vast majority of carbon emitted by wildland fires is released as CO₂, CO, and CH₄, wildland fire smoke is nonetheless a rich and complex mixture of gases and aerosols. Primary emissions include significant amounts of CH₄ and aerosol (organic aerosol and black carbon), which are short-lived climate forcers. In addition to CO₂ and short-lived climate forcers, wildland fires release CO, non-methane organic compounds (NMOC), nitrogen oxides (NO_x = NO + NO₂), NH₃, and SO₂. These species play a role in radiative forcing through their photochemical processing, which impacts atmospheric levels of CO₂, CH₄, tropospheric O₃, and aerosol. This paper reviews the current state of knowledge regarding the chemical composition of emissions and emission factors for fires in United States vegetation types as pertinent to radiative forcing and climate. Emission factors are critical input for the models used to estimate wildland fire greenhouse gas and aerosol emission inventories.

Urbanski, S. (2014) Wildland fire emissions, carbon, and climate: Emission factors, Forest Ecology and Management 317:51-60.