Sonoma Technology Estimates 1.7M Tons of PM_2.5 from 2014 U.S. Wild and Prescribed Fires

Sonoma Technology developed nationwide wildland fire emission estimates for the first version of the 2014 National Emissions Inventory (NEI), a database containing estimates for criteria and hazardous air pollutant emissions and their sources.
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Sonoma Technology compiled fire activity data from national, state, local, and tribal data sets to create wildland fire and prescribed burn smoke emission estimates for over half a million daily fire locations across the U.S. Sonoma Technology scientists used the SmartFire data platform and <a href="/projects/4121" target="_blank">BlueSky Modeling Framework</a>, both of which Sonoma Technology helped develop and improve. Our modeling work estimated a total of 875,000 tons of PM_2.5 emissions from wildfire smoke and an additional 783,000 tons from prescribed burns across the U.S. in 2014.
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The NEI, which is released every three years by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is used by the EPA to assess national air quality standards. It is also used by states to develop air quality implementation plans, and by other agencies and the public to better understand air toxics, greenhouse gas, and other air pollutant impacts throughout the country.
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The EPA also retained Sonoma Technology to create the 2015 Wildland Fire Emissions Inventory for the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, which Sonoma Technology completed in 2016.