UAV-Based Wildland Fire Air Toxics Data Collection and Analysis.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Atmospheric Chemistry
• Aerospace Engineering

Background:

• Wildland-urban interface (WUI) wildfire smoke contains harmful synthetic chemical substances.
• Current air toxics monitoring methods (ground sensors, manned aircraft, satellites) provide insufficient spatial and temporal resolution.
• Understanding air toxics impacts on human health necessitates accurate, high-resolution data.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the efficacy of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for collecting high-resolution air toxics data from wildfire plumes.
• To analyze the relationship between specific air toxics and different vegetation types burned in wildfires.

Main Methods:

• Development and testing of an octocopter UAV equipped with a custom air quality sensor package and volatile organic compound (VOC) sampler.
• Deployment of the UAV during prescribed fires conducted by CAL FIRE.
• Analysis of collected air toxics data, focusing on BTEX compounds and fuel types.

Main Results:

• The UAV system successfully collected air toxics data during prescribed fire events.
• Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and Xylene (BTEX) compounds were found to be more abundant in smoke plumes from hardwood burning than from grassland burning.
• Demonstrated the potential of UAVs for detailed wildfire plume analysis.

Conclusions:

• UAVs provide a viable platform for high-resolution, in-situ air toxics measurements in wildfire plumes.
• Fuel type significantly influences the composition and abundance of specific air toxics, such as BTEX, in wildfire smoke.
• This technology can enhance our understanding of wildfire smoke impacts on human health and inform mitigation strategies.