Smoke designations for eastern Kansas monitoring sites during March-May 2022

Prescribed fires (fires intentionally set for mitigation purposes) produce
pollutants, which have negative effects on human and animal health. One of
the pollutants produced from fires is fine particulate matter (PM2.5).
PM2.5 can penetrate deep into the lungs and harm cardiovascular and
respiratory systems. The Flint Hills region of Kansas experiences
extensive prescribed burning each spring (March - May). Smoke from
prescribed fires is often understudied due to a lack of monitoring in the
rural regions where prescribed burning occurs, as well as the short
duration and small size of the fires. Our goal was to attribute PM2.5
concentrations to the prescribed burning in the Flint Hills. To determine
PM2.5 increases from local burning, we used low-cost PM2.5 sensors
(PurpleAir) and satellite observations. The Flint Hills were also affected
by smoke transported from fires in other regions during 2022. We separated
the transported smoke from smoke from fires in eastern Kansas. Based on
data from the PurpleAir sensors, we found the 24-hour median PM2.5
increased by 5.2 µg m-3 on days impacted by smoke from fires in the
eastern Kansas region compared to days unimpacted by smoke. We found the
Flint Hills to be the most smoke PM2.5 impacted region compared to the
surrounding area across satellite products and in-situ
measurements.