A Global Geostationary Biomass Burning Emissions Estimation System for Use in Forecasting of Atmospheric State

Biomass burning (BB) is a major dynamic of the earth-atmosphere system, emitting smoke pollutants in quantities that are highly variable in space and time. By transferring knowledge and results from NERC grant NER/Z/S/2001/01027 this NERC Knowledge Transfer (KT) Project will design, build and evaluate the first system for the global geostationary observation of BB emissions source strength by (i) adapting and implementing the fire detection and characterisation algorithms developed under the grant for use with the full suite of geostationary systems (currently 2 x Meteosat SEVIRI, 2 x GOES, and MTSAT; with the possibility of INSAT3D after launch), (ii) linking this to cloud-masking procedures developed in concert with the UK Meteorological Office, and (iii) running the resultant BB scene analysis on the Meteorological Office real-time feeds for these data. The proposal does not undertake new science, and so is ineligible for NERC Standard Grant funding, but will transfer knowledge to enable Meteorological Office to produce a unique and widely called for BB product and will transfer that product onward to project partners for use in forecasts of atmospheric state. Users of these forecast products will thus also receive the benefit of the KT. The output BB product will be synthesised to a uniform, consistent and validated datastream with quantified uncertainties that will be made available at the necessary timesteps for forecast purposes. Product specification and file characteristics will be informed by the requirements of the Meteorological Office and the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF). The BB product will be validated against simultaneous higher spatial resolution observations and will be incorporated into current procedures for forecasting of atmospheric state and the ascribing of causal mechanisms to noted changes in atmospheric trace gas, aerosol and CO2 concentrations.