Lidar and airborne investigation of smoke plume characteristics: Kootenai Creek Fire case study

A ground-based scanning lidar was utilized with a set of airborne instruments to acquire measurements of smoke plume dynamics, smoke aerosol distribution and chemical composition in the vicinity of active wildfires in the western U.S. A new retrieval technique was used for processing lidar multiangle measurements. The technique determines the location of atmospheric heterogeneity versus height, which is retrieved from the entire vertical scan taken from a selected azimuthal direction. The vertical profiles of smoke plumes derived from heterogeneity events detected from lidar are consistent with aerosol mass concentrations, derived from airborne measurements in smoke plumes. The measurements are made with the purpose of acquiring the data necessary for the evaluation of plume rise and smoke dispersion models.