NASA-Funded Study Shows Wildfire Smoke’s Hidden Ozone Toll

- A NASA-supported study found that over the past decade wildfires have increased ground-level ozone (smog) across much of the contiguous U.S., worsening air quality far from fires. - Nationally, fires offset nearly four years of ozone-control gains; in the Midwest wildfires erased about 5.3 years of progress since 2015. - Wildfire gases (e.g., carbon monoxide) promote ozone formation downwind, and 2022–2024 fires exposed ~43 million extra people to ozone above federal standards. - Researchers estimate ~318 additional premature deaths per year after 2013 linked to long-term wildfire-driven ozone exposure. - Results used a new 2003–2024 km-scale ozone dataset built with deep learning combining ground monitors, models, weather, wildfire and satellite data; NASA tools (e.g., TEMPO, FireAQ) can help track and inform responses.

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