EMISSIONS OF SOME TRACE GASES FROM BIOMASS FIRES

Airborne measurements of 13 trace gases from seven forest fires in North America are used to determine their average emission factors. The estimate for NH3 (~7 Tg N yr-1) is about 50% of the global emissions of this gas. Combined NH3 and NH4 - emissions from biomass burning could be the most important component of the NH3 cycle. N2O from biomass burning (~2 Tg N yr-1) is also significant worldwide. The estimate for NOx from biomass burning worldwide (~19 Tg N yr-1), which is greater than previous estimates, is comparable to emissions from fossil fuel combustion. The estimate of the global flux of F12 (CF2Cl2) from biomass burning based on the complete data set (~0.2 Tg yr-1) is ~50% of the total global emission of F12. -from Authors