This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint.

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Abstract
Smoke from the Los Angeles wildfires that started on January 7, 2025 caused severe air quality impacts across the region. Government agencies released guidance on assessing personal risk, pointing to publicly available data platforms that present information from regulatory and low-cost monitoring networks. Additional satellite-based products provide useful supplementary information during dynamic wildfire smoke events. We evaluate the regional air quality impacts of the fires through publicly available fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) observations. Specifically, we analyze pollutant data from regulatory monitoring stations, PurpleAir sensors, the TEMPO and TROPOMI satellite sensors, and HMS Smoke Plumes during the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. The most extreme air quality impacts were observed on January 8 and 9, particularly in the southern half of Los Angeles County. While smoke impacts were largely consistent across all evaluated data sources, differences in the spatial and temporal resolution of each product may affect interpretability for end users. This study underscores the importance of integrating multiple air quality data sources and improving accessibility to enhance public health messaging during wildfire events.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.31223/X5Z13K
Subjects
Environmental Health and Protection
Keywords
wildfire smoke, public health, Air Quality, Satellite Data, low-cost sensors, regulatory monitors
Dates
Published: 2025-02-24 15:44
Last Updated: 2025-02-24 21:43
License
CC BY Attribution 4.0 International
Additional Metadata
Conflict of interest statement:
None
Data Availability (Reason not available):
All data used in this analysis are already publicly available from other sources
There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article.