A diverse team of scientists led by Colorado State University will be on an aircraft conducting smoke observation flights in Boise, Idaho.
The project, called The Western Wildfire Experiment for Cloud Chemistry, Aerosol Absorption and Nitrogen, or WE-CAN, is looking into what kind of effect wildfire smoke has on air quality, nutrient cycles, weather and climate.
CSU鈥檚 Emily Fischer is the lead scientist on the campaign.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 different about our field campaign is we are trying to generate statistics,鈥� said CSU鈥檚 Emily Fischer, a lead scientist on the campaign. 鈥淪o we are trying to sample the smoke under a lot of different environmental conditions repeatedly so we have a full picture of the chemistry of the smoke. Because without that you really can鈥檛 improve either air quality forecasts or storm forecasts.鈥�
The researcher group includes scientists from CSU, University of Wyoming, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, University of Colorado Boulder and University of Montana will be looking for answers to a multitude of questions: What is the smoke made of? How does it affect clouds? How does the type and growth of the forest affect the composition of smoke produced?
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have a good grasp on everything that鈥檚 in that smoke. What are people breathing and how is what they鈥檙e breathing changing based on their distance from the fire?鈥� Fischer said. 鈥淚n order for health departments or individuals to make decisions, we need to have a better fundamental understanding of what鈥檚 in smoke and how it changes over time.鈥�
The WE-CAN team will be conducting 15 to 20 smoke-observation flights in Boise through August. Fischer says when the plane is back in Colorado there will be graduate student-led flights around the Front Range to continue to collect more data.
