Assessment of the impact of waste fires on air quality and atmospheric aerosol optical depth: A case study in Poland

Abstract

In this study the impact on air quality and on atmospheric aerosol optical depth (AOD) of selected waste fires in Poland in the last few years was assessed using measurement results derived from the public air quality monitoring (AQM) system and satellite observations of the MODIS sensor. Additional meteorological data from nearest ground stations as well as results of HYSPLIT forward and backward modeling and high-resolution satellite imagery were used to initially identify locations potentially exposed to smoke from the fires and hours of exposure. The concentrations of selected air pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, NOx, CO, and C6H6) were treated as characteristic substances of waste fires. Depending on the location of a given AQM station in relation to the place of waste fire and the prevailing meteorological conditions, a more or less significant air concentration peaks (lasting at least several hours) of the analyzed substances were observed. The study showed that the fumes from large waste fires spread over a long distance, so that the increase in air pollutant concentrations can be also recorded at AQM stations located further away (approx. 200–300 km) from the fire site. In the layer of the atmosphere where the smoke is transported, its influence on the AOD data from satellite observations was also visible.

Keywords

• Waste fires
• Air pollution
• High concentration episodes
• Air quality monitoring
• HYSPLIT
• Remote sensing