Understanding Air Quality and Quantifying Health Impacts 

Flint Hills Kansas Campaign 

Emissions from small fires can have a demonstrable impact on atmospheric composition and air quality on local to regional scales. Across the U.S., poor air quality disproportionately impacts low income and minority communities compared to to non-Hispanic, White, and affluent communities. 

This project will leverage expertise among HAQAST investigators in remote sensing technology, novel technology in low-cost monitoring, and high-resolution fire-detection and Aerosol Optical Depth products from MODIS, VIIRS, and GOES-16 to quantify smoke from small fires  across the western and southeastern U.S. with two study sites: Western Palm Beach County, Florida and the Flint Hills region of Kansas.

To estimate the burden of disease due to smoke exposure on downwind communities, this project will conduct a epidemiological study  based on existing concentration response functions for PM2.5.  This project will serve as a best practice for conducting exposure assessment using a fusion approach for other agricultural burning practices across the United States.

To understand communication around smoke, risk, and media, our study in Florida will be an experiment surrounding media coverage and sugarcane burning. We will be focused on studying undergraduate students from Florida colleges and universities at this time.