GIBE Article - Wildfire smoke changes dramatically as it ages, and that matters for downwind air quality – here's what we learned flying through smoke plumes

Health + Medicine

❐ Wildfire smoke changes dramatically as it ages, and that matters for downwind air quality – here's what we learned flying through smoke plumes

2020 Dec 17

Sampling wildfire smoke sometimes means sticking a tube out the window of an airplane. Brett Palm/University of Washington, CC BY-ND

Thousands of chemical compounds in wildfire smoke are interacting with each other and sunlight as the smoke travels. For people downwind, it can become more toxic over time.