Wildfire activity continues at elevated levels across the united states and canada, part of a decades-long trend of increasing intensity and scope

The Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded a $371,650.00 Cooperative Agreement to the Regents of the University of Colorado, doing business as the University of Colorado Office of Contracts and Grants Division, under the Cooperative Institute (Inter-Agency Funded Activities) CFDA 11.405 program. The project will develop a mobile wildfire air composition unit to measure particulates, trace gases, and other atmospheric impacts near prescribed burns, fire-prone regions, or existing wildfires. The mobile unit will collect surface and vertical observations to identify which atmospheric layers are affected by the fires. The goal is to improve understanding of wildfire air composition to support mitigation and response efforts given the ongoing trend of increasing wildfire intensity and scope across the United States and Canada. The award period is from August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2026.

The average annual acreage burned in the U.S. Is nearly 6.9 million over the past ten years, but in 2020, wildfires have burned more than 8.5 million acres. Wildfires often threaten communities, displacing people and destroying buildings and infrastructure. This project will develop a mobile wildfire air composition unit for deploying near prescribed burns, fire prone regions, or existing wildfires regions. The mobile wildfire unit will be built to have a suit of observations for measuring the composition of air for particulates, optical composition of particulates, trace gases such as ozone, nitrogen dioxides, and carbon species. The mobile unit will include observations at the surface and vertical information to identify what layer of the atmosphere is impacted by the fires. The combination of observations will be used to help impro