Airborne studies of emissions from savanna fires in southern Africa. 1. Aerosol emissions measured with a laser optical particle counter

During the SAFARI-92 experiment (Southern Africa Fire Atmosphere Research Initiative, September–October 1992), we flew an instrumented DC-3 aircraft through plumes from fires in various southern African savanna ecosystems. Some fires had been managed purposely for scientific study (e.g., those in Kruger National Park, South Africa), while the others were “fires of opportunity” which are abundant during the burning season in southern Africa. We obtained the aerosol (0.1–3.0 μm diameter) number and mass emission ratios relative to carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide from 21 individual fires. The average particle number emission ratio ΔN/ΔCO (Δ: concentrations in plume minus background concentrations) varied between 14±2 cm−3 ppb−1 for grasslands and 23±7 cm−3 ppb−1 for savannas. An exceptionally high value of 43±4 cm−3 ppb−1 was measured for a sugarcane fire. Similarly, the mass emission ratio ΔM/ΔCO varied from 36±6 ng m−3 ppb−1 to 83±45 ng m−3 ppb−1, respectively, with again an exceptionally high value of 124±14 ng m−3 ppb−1 for the sugarcane fire. The number and mass emission ratios relative to CO depended strongly upon the fire intensity. Whereas the emission ratios varied greatly from one fire to the other, the aerosol number and volume distributions as a function of particle size were very consistent. The average background aerosol size distribution was characterized by three mass modes (0.2–0.4 μm, ≈1.0 μm, and ≈2.0 μm diameter). On the other hand, the aerosol size distribution in the smoke plumes showed only two mass modes, one centered in the interval 0.2–0.3 μm and the other above 2 μm diameter. From our mean emission factor (4±1 g kg−1 dm) we estimate that savanna fires release some 11–18 Tg aerosol particles in the size range 0.1–3.0 μm annually, a somewhat lower amount than emitted from tropical forest fires. Worldwide, savanna fires emit some 3–8 × 1027 particles (in the same size range) annually, which is expected to make a substantial contribution to the cloud condensation nuclei population in the tropics.