The Quantifying the impact of BOReal forest fires on Tropospheric oxidants over the Atlantic using Aircraft and Satellites (BORTAS) project provides information on the connection between the composition and the distribution of biomass burning outflow, ozone production and loss within the outflow, and the resulting perturbation to oxidant chemistry in the troposphere. The BORTAS team sampled biomass burning outflow over the North Atlantic in summer 2011 the using Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) BAe-146 aircraft. The data were then used to describe the observed chemistry within plumes and to quantify the impact of boreal fires on the North Atlantic region using a nested 3-D chemistry transport model.

This dataset contains atmospheric aircraft and model data.

Science Objectives of BORTAS:

-Sample biomass burning outflow from boreal North America over the western boundary of the North Atlantic during summer 2011 using the FAAM BAe146 aircraft;

-Describe observed chemistry within plumes by using the measurements to constrain the Master Chemical Mechanism (MCM), with particular attention to the NOy and organic chemistry;

-Derive a reduced chemical mechanism suitable for a global Chemical Transport Model (CTM) that accurately describes chemistry within the plumes;

-Quantify the impact of boreal forest fires on oxidant chemistry over the temperate and subtropical Atlantic using a nested 3-D chemistry transport model, driven by a subset of MCM chemistry and by assimilated field measurements; and

-Detect, validate and quantify the impact of boreal biomass burning on global tropospheric composition using data from space-borne sensors.

The FAAM airborne sampling element of the BORTAS project took place in July and August 2011.