ИСТИНА

Wildland fires are a major source of carbonaceous particulate matter (PM) in the global atmosphere. Biomass burning yields a large amount of smoke aerosols, affecting the global carbon cycle, radiation heat exchange, and aerosol/cloud/climate interactions. Quantification of the atmospheric pollution and impacts of wildfires on climate change in the Pan-Eurasian region as well as the Arctic is one of the most important research priorities. Impacts of intense Siberian forest fires in summer 2012-2013 and long-lasting peat bog smoldering in the European part of Russia in summer 2014 at regional scale were examined during background observations. We performed aerosol monitoring and sampling at the Tomsk station of IAO RAS and Moscow city site as well as in near – wildfire source measurement campaigns in the Tomsk and Moscow regions. PM and black carbon (BC) mass concentrations are provided together with PM speciation. Elevated PM, OC, BC, and tracers of biomass burning (levoglucosan and potassium ion) during intensive wildfire events show the impacts of wildfires on air quality and aerosol chemistry. Hazardous constituents from forest and peat fires such as nitrates and sulfates, acid and non-acid carbonyl compounds, transition and alkali earth metals, and their soluble chemical forms are released into the atmosphere and secondary species are formed together with carbonaceous particles, ash, and carbonates evolved from soil dust during large wildfires. These environmentally-dangerous species constitute important fingerprints of biomass burning emissions, indicating the pathways and mechanisms of release and transport of organic and BC pollutants in the PEEX regions.