What’s in That Smoke?

Credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory

Cloaking urban areas and wildfire zones, tiny smoke particles suspended in the atmosphere have a sizeable effect on our climate. But the exact effect of many of these aerosols-such as how much sunlight they absorb, thus warming Earth, or reflecting back to space and so cooling Earth-is very uncertain.

Manvendra Dubey of Los Alamos National Laboratory is studying the complex brew of chemicals in smoke and their long-term health and environmental effects as the plume spread thousands of miles downwind.

Dubey can talk about the chemical composition of smoke, potential health and environmental hazards, and how the analysis can reveal a fire’s origins.

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Expert Pitch

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SCIENCE

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Chemistry Natural Disasters Wildfires Environmental Science

KEYWORDS

fire Smoke Chemistry

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