Junhong Wang

Wildfires are a significant source of PM 2.5 that adversely affect local and regional air quality. However, tracking wildfire smoke and their impacts are difficult. This study explores how a ground‐based Doppler lidar network can improve monitoring of long‐range transported wildfire smoke. As a case study, this paper reviews the transported wildfire smoke and its impact on air quality across New York State (NYS) during two events: 18–21 and 25–27 July 2021. Observations of wildfire smoke and enhancement of PM 2.5 across NYS during those events were consistent across ground‐based sensors, satellites, back trajectory analyses, and model forecasts. However, for some of the days, the model over/under‐forecasted smoke plumes. Overall, this study highlights the value of the NYS Mesonet Profiler Network to monitor wildfire smoke with high spatiotemporal resolution. Such a relatively dense network can be a valuable observational tool for evaluating PM 2.5 , and aiding satellite measurements and air quality forecasting models.