Cheng et al. (2026) Direct and Indirect Effects of Aerosols During the 2023 Canadian Wildfires

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Identification

• Journal: Atmosphere
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-03-26
• Authors: Anning Cheng, Pan Li, Partha S. Bhattacharjee, Fanglin Yang
• DOI: 10.3390/atmos17040337

Research Groups

Not specified in the provided text.

Short Summary

This modeling study found that incorporating real-time 2023 Canadian wildfire aerosol forcing significantly improved the representation of atmospheric conditions and aerosol optical depth compared to using climatology, though the positive impact on overall medium-range weather forecasting performance (5–10 days) was modest.

Objective

• To investigate the impact of 2023 Canadian wildfire aerosols (primarily black carbon and organic aerosol) on weather forecasts.
• To determine if incorporating real-time aerosol forcing improves model performance compared to using climatological data.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Regional (over the 2023 Canadian wildfire region).
• Temporal Scale: 2023 wildfire season; Medium-range weather forecasts (5–10 days).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Coupled atmosphere-chemistry model; Weather forecast model.
• Data sources: Real-time aerosol forcing data (for 2023 Canadian wildfires); Climatological aerosol data.

Main Results

• Experiments without real-time aerosol data severely underestimated aerosol optical depth (AOD).
• Incorporating real-time aerosol forcing or using a coupled atmosphere-chemistry model mitigated AOD underestimation.
• Aerosols exerted a strong direct radiative effect, reducing surface downward shortwave (SW) flux and generating corresponding surface cooling over the wildfire region.
• Including aerosol–cloud interactions amplified this cooling and led to an increase in overall cloud fraction and precipitation, illustrating complex indirect effects.
• While these physical improvements enhanced the representation of the atmosphere, the positive impact on overall medium-range forecasting performance (5–10 days) was modest.

Contributions

• Demonstrates the critical importance of real-time aerosol forcing for accurately representing atmospheric conditions during significant wildfire events.
• Highlights the complex direct and indirect radiative effects of wildfire aerosols on the coupled Earth system, including impacts on surface temperature, clouds, and precipitation.
• Suggests that the full benefits of accurately representing wildfire feedback on the coupled Earth system, particularly for forecasting, are achieved through relatively slow processes like radiation feedback, rather than immediate short-term forecast improvements.

Funding

Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Cheng2026Direct,
  author = {Cheng, Anning and Li, Pan and Bhattacharjee, Partha S. and Yang, Fanglin},
  title = {Direct and Indirect Effects of Aerosols During the 2023 Canadian Wildfires},
  journal = {Atmosphere},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.3390/atmos17040337},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos17040337}
}