Date of Award

6-2025

Document Type

Thesis (Undergraduate)

Department

Environmental Studies

First Advisor

Richard Howarth

Abstract

In the summer of 2023, Canada experienced an unprecedented wildfire season with total burned area reaching 15 million hectares, doubling the previous record. Notably, smoke plumes from Eastern Canada were transported to the Northeast United States, resulting in record-breaking measures of poor air quality in early June 2023. This thesis employs a multi-method analysis to understand the June 2023 Quebec wildfires, focusing on atmospheric science, public health effects in New York City, and albedo changes on the Greenland ice sheet. Through this analysis, I find record-high monthly mean aerosol optical depth values in June 2023 in three regions– the Northeast United States, the North Atlantic, and Western Europe– compared to the historical record that reaches back to 2002. I also find disproportionate increases in asthma-associated emergency department visits in New York City across different demographic covariates. Finally, analysis of aerosol optical depth and ice sheet albedo in Greenland suggests that wildfire smoke did pass over the ice sheet, but the resolution and extent of these datasets makes it difficult to determine whether deposition occurred. This work illustrates the far-reaching nature of climate extremes, which impact people and the planet in unexpected ways. The thesis also highlights climate change as an environmental justice concern and emphasizes the importance of multidisciplinary methods in studying climate extremes.

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