About

Professor Daniel Jaffe is a faculty member in the Physical Sciences Division at the School of STEM, University of Washington Bothell. His research focuses on studying local, regional, and global pollution sources in the western United States, with particular attention to airborne research related to air quality, wildfire impacts, and atmospheric composition. He is the principal investigator of the Jaffe Group, which investigates various aspects of air pollution, including smoke and wildfire effects, and develops tools such as the Smoke & Wildfire Resources and the Smokelyze App for analyzing historical distributions of smoke and predicting smoke impacts. Professor Jaffe's work involves understanding the dynamics of air pollutants, their sources, and their effects on environmental and human health. His group has contributed to rapid assessments of smoke impacts on ozone and particulate matter across U.S. regions, and his research supports policy and public health initiatives related to air quality. He is actively involved in airborne research projects and collaborates with a team of postdoctoral scholars, researchers, and students to advance knowledge in atmospheric sciences and environmental monitoring.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Environmental science
• Meteorology
• Geography
• Climatology
• Waste management
• Engineering
• Statistics
• Atmospheric sciences
• Mathematics

Selected publications

• Understanding the impact of meteorology on ozone in 334 cities of China

  Atmospheric Environment · 2021 · 121 citations

  • Environmental science
  • Atmospheric sciences
  • Meteorology
  DOI

• Wildfire and prescribed burning impacts on air quality in the United States

  Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association · 2020 · 485 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Environmental science
  • Meteorology
  • Waste management

  ) concentrations for extended periods. Fires emit particulate matter (PM) and gaseous compounds that can negatively impact human health and reduce visibility. While the overall trend in U.S. air quality has been improving for decades, largely due to implementation of the Clean Air Act, seasonal wildfires threaten to undo this in some regions of the United States. Our understanding of the health effects of smoke is growing with regard to respiratory and cardiovascular consequences and mortality. The costs of these health outcomes can exceed the billions already spent on wildfire suppression. In this critical review, we examine each of the processes that influence wildland fires and the effects of fires, including the natural role of wildland fire, forest management, ignitions, emissions, transport, chemistry, and human health impacts. We highlight key data gaps and examine the complexity and scope and scale of fire occurrence, estimated emissions, and resulting effects on regional air quality across the United States. The goal is to clarify which areas are well understood and which need more study. We conclude with a set of recommendations for future research. IMPLICATIONS: In the recent decade the area of wildfires in the United States has increased dramatically and the resulting smoke has exposed millions of people to unhealthy air quality. In this critical review we examine the key factors and impacts from fires including natural role of wildland fire, forest management, ignitions, emissions, transport, chemistry and human health.

  DOI

Recent grants

• Influence of Global Sources on Free Tropospheric Ozone and Aerosols in the Western United States

  NSF · $609k · 2004–2008

• Influence of Free Tropospheric Ozone and Particulate Matter (PM) on Surface Air Quality across the West Coast of the United States

  NSF · $821k · 2011–2015

• Understanding the Influence of Global Air Pollution on U.S. Air Quality Through Observations at the Mt. Bachelor Observatory

  NSF · $592k · 2007–2011

• Collaborative Research: Aerosols, Nitrogen Oxides, and Ozone at the Mt. Bachelor Observatory

  NSF · $973k · 2018–2023

• Western Airborne Mercury Observations (WAMO)

  NSF · $321k · 2008–2011

Frequent coauthors

• Jason M. Cholewa

  National Ability Center

  42 shared

• Vincent Paolone

  Springfield College

  42 shared

• O. R. Cooper

  41 shared

• G. Dufour

  Safran (Brazil)

  38 shared

• Irina Petropavlovskikh

  University of Colorado Boulder

  38 shared

• Tracy D. Matthews

  Springfield College

  36 shared

• David J. Grannis

  Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo

  36 shared

• Sophie Szopa

  Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement

  34 shared

Labs

• Jaffe GroupPI

Education

• Ph.D., Atmospheric Sciences

  University of Washington

  1990

• M.S., Atmospheric Sciences

  University of Washington

  1985

• B.S., Physics

  University of California, Los Angeles

  1982

Awards & honors

• Selected for National Academy of Sciences panel on "The Sign…
• Named the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Environmental Sci…
• First UW-Bothell Distinguished Research, Scholarship, and Cr…

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