Peat-forest burning smoke in Maritime Continent: Impacts on receptor PM and implications at emission sources.

This study characterizes the impacts of transported peat-forest (PF) burning smoke on an urban environment and evaluates associated source burning conditions based on carbon properties of PM at the receptor site. We developed and validated a three-step classification that enables systematic and more rapid identification of PF smoke impacts on a tropical urban environment with diverse emissions and complex atmospheric processes. This approach was used to characterize over 300 daily PM data collected during 2011-2013, 2015 and 2019 in Singapore.

Impacts of peat-forest smoke on urban PM in the Maritime Continent during 2012-2015: Carbonaceous profiles and indicators.

This study characterizes impacts of peat-forest (PF) smoke on an urban environment through carbonaceous profiles of >260 daily PM samples collected during 2012, 2013 and 2015. Organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) comprising eight carbonaceous fractions are examined for four sample groups - non-smoke-dominant (NSD), smoke-dominant (SD), episodic PM samples at the urban receptor, and near-source samples collected close to PF burning sites. PF smoke introduced much larger amounts of OC than EC, with OC accounting for up to 94% of total carbon (TC), or increasing by up to 20 times in receptor PM.