Journal article
Fires reverse progress toward ozone air quality standards in the United States
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), Vol.392(6802), pp.1088-1092
06/04/2026
DOI: 10.1126/science.aed3197
PMID: 42241527
Abstract
Recent surges in wildfire emissions have exacerbated surface ozone pollution in the United States. Using deep learning, we developed a gapless daily surface ozone dataset at 1-kilometer resolution for 2003-2024. This dataset revealed a reversal in national policy-relevant ozone trends that had gone undetected by the sparse monitoring network: from -0.65 parts per billion (ppb) per year (2003-2015) to +0.13 ppb per year (2015-2024). The reversal was primarily driven by increasing wildfire emissions, offsetting 3.9 years of mitigation progress. Premature deaths from fire-sourced ozone have increased by 318 deaths per year since 2013, with post-2013 mortality 46% higher than pre-2013 mortality. During 2022-2024, wildfire emissions exposed 43 million people to nonattainment conditions, effectively preventing a 4-ppb tightening of the ozone standard. These results underscore the growing challenges of sustaining air quality progress as wildfires intensify under climate change.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Fires reverse progress toward ozone air quality standards in the United States
- Creators
- Weizhi Deng - University of IowaJun Wang - University of Iowa, Civil and Environmental EngineeringMeng Zhou - Goddard Space Flight CenterXi Chen - University of IowaXiaodong Wu - University of IowaHuanxin Zhang - University of Iowa, Iowa Technology InstituteJason B Cohen - Independent Researcher, New Brunswick, NJ, USAJing Wei - Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USAArlindo da Silva - Goddard Space Flight CenterGuy P Brasseur - NSF National Center for Atmospheric ResearchClaire Granier - Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueLaurence Rouil - European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), Vol.392(6802), pp.1088-1092
- DOI
- 10.1126/science.aed3197
- PMID
- 42241527
- NLM abbreviation
- Science
- ISSN
- 0036-8075
- eISSN
- 1095-9203
- Publisher
- AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE; WASHINGTON
- Grant note
- NASA's Terra, Aqua, and Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) program: 80NNSC21L1976 NASA's Modeling and Analysis program: 80NSSC21K1494 NASA's Health and Air Quality program: 80NSSC22K1047 NSF's Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program: 2420405
This work was supported by NASA's Terra, Aqua, and Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) program (grant 80NNSC21L1976 to J.Wa.), NASA's Modeling and Analysis program (grant 80NSSC21K1494 to J.Wa.), NASA's Health and Air Quality program (grant 80NSSC22K1047 to J.Wa.), and the NSF's Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program (award 2420405 to J.Wa.).
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 06/04/2026
- Academic Unit
- Electrical and Computer Engineering; Civil and Environmental Engineering; Iowa Technology Institute; Physics and Astronomy; Radiation Oncology; The Iowa Institute for Biomedical Imaging; Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9985174012702771
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