Air Sciences Inc. is collaborating with Brigham Young University graduate student Stephen Tyler on an expert survey examining the public-health implications of receding terminal saline lakes.
Well-established wildfire smoke models such as HRRR-Smoke and BlueSky predict smoke concentrations one to three days in advance. They present these forecasts as gridded maps of modeled PM₂.₅ concentrations, hour by hour. This focus on concentration suits state air-quality agencies concerned with maximum human-health impacts. It is less useful to someone who needs to know where the plume will be over the next few hours as it meanders — whether it will cross a particular highway this afternoon, or where to place an air quality monitor tonight to capture the point of greatest impact.
Wildfire season is now well underway in the forests and rangelands of the western United States. Smoke plume forecasting is an increasingly valuable tool for giving people and agencies a “heads up” about when and where unhealthy air is likely to occur, so that action can be taken before the smoke arrives.
In the late 2000s, questions emerged about whether hydrogen cyanide (HCN) emissions from gold mining cyanide leach operations could pose a risk to nearby communities. Rather than relying solely on conservative assumptions or modeling, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) invoked its authority under Clean Air Act Section 114 to request real-world data. In response, Air Sciences, working closely with the Nevada Mining Association (NvMA) and its member companies, spearheaded a comprehensive ambient monitoring program designed to answer a simple but critical question: What are the actual ambient concentrations of HCN at the fence line of operating gold mines?
Rising global temperatures have increased the frequency and intensity of wildfires worldwide, especially in northern and temperate forests. These extreme fires have sparked significant legal claims affecting agriculture, forestry, tourism, and infrastructure. Accurately understanding wildfire smoke dispersion is vital in legal disputes to identify which fires caused specific impacts and to gauge their effects amid multiple simultaneous wildfires.