Complementary analysis of lunar photometry to detect wildfire emissions in Montevideo

Abstract

Nighttime aerosol optical depth (AOD) using lunar photometry has attracted great interest in recent years due to improved ground-based lunar irradiance measurements. The night is a large window of time that is not frequently used and during which aerosol dynamics evolve under conditions different from daytime. This work shows a first approximation of a night-time analysis that complements the day-time detection of emissions from wildfires that are transported from long distances. We based on two events detected during the day and we confirm the presence of wildfire emissions by detecting high levels of formaldehyde, and then we monitor the Lunar AOD to analyze the behavior of fine and coarse particles since forest fires have a high proportion of fine particles.