The Coupled Aerosol and Tracer Transport model to the Brazilian developments on the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (CATT-BRAMS) – Part 2: Model sensitivity to the biomass burning inventories

We describe an estimation technique for biomass burning emissions in South America based on a combination of remote sensing fire products and field observations. For each fire pixel detected by remote sensing, the mass of the emitted tracer is calculated based on field observations of fire properties related to the type of vegetation burning. 5 The burnt area is estimated from the instantaneous fire size retrieved by remote sensing, when available, or from statistical properties of the burn scars. The sources are then spatially and temporally distributed and assimilated daily by the Coupled Aerosol and Tracer Transport model to the Brazilian developments on the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (CATT-BRAMS) in order to perform the prognostic of related tracer 10 concentrations. Two other biomass burning inventories are simultaneously used to compare the emission strength in terms of the resultant tracer distribution. Several evaluations of the model with the three emission estimations were performed, comparing results with direct measurements of carbon monoxide both near-surface and airborne, as well as remote sensing derived products. Model results with the method15 ology of estimation introduced in this paper show a relatively good agreement with the direct measurements and MOPITT data product; pointing out the reliability of the model from local to regional scales.