wildfire smoke (IMAGE) Washington University in St. Louis Caption To conduct a comprehensive analysis of what makes up wildfire smoke plumes, Rajan Chakrabarty’s team spent 45 days traveling to different wildfire locations in the western United States where they sampled gaseous smoke and aerosol species and analyzed their chemical and optical properties. This research was conducted as part of the Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) field campaign, a joint venture led by NOAA and NASA. Credit Steve Brown, NOAA Usage Restrictions For editorial purposes License Original content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.