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Hazard reduction burns and air quality in Sydney: Results published

Posted
October 6, 2022
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The results of a study about predicting air quality associated with smoke from hazard reduction burns near Sydney have been published in the open access journal PLOS ONE.

This research from Work Package 3 analysed air pollution (PM2.5) observations in Sydney against weather data and active fire data from satellites (VIIRS). The models produced predict that the worst PM2.5 in Sydney occurs when PM2.5 was high the previous day, there is a low “ventilation index” (i.e. wind speed x planetary boundary layer height), low temperature, west to northwest winds in the Blue Mountains, an afternoon sea breeze and large areas of hazard reduction burns being conducted, particularly to the west and north of Sydney. The work produced useful models that can predict the chance of different PM2.5 levels occurring based on the weather and fire conditions. The article is freely available to read at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272774

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