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The frequency of extreme wildfire events (EWEs) is expected to increase due to climate change, leading to higher levels of atmospheric pollutants being released into the air, which could cause significant short-term impacts on human health (both for the population and firefighters) and on visibility. This study aims to gain a better understanding of the effects of EWEs' smoke on air quality, its short-term impacts on human health, and how it reduces visibility by applying a modelling system to the Portuguese EWEs of October 2017. The Weather Research and Forecasting Model was combined with a semi-empirical fire spread algorithm (WRF-SFIRE) to simulate particulate matter smoke dispersion and assess its impacts based on up-to-date numerical approaches. Hourly simulated particulate matter values were compared to hourly monitored values, and the WRF-SFIRE system demonstrated accuracy consistent with previous studies, with a correlation coefficient ranging from 0.30 to 0.76 and an RMSE varying between 215 µg/m3 and 418 µg/m3. The estimated daily particle concentration levels exceeded the European air quality limit value, indicating a potential strong impact on human health. Health indicators related to exposure to particles were estimated, and their spatial distribution showed that the highest number of hospital admissions (>300) during the EWE, which occurred downwind of the fire perimeters, were due to the combined effect of high smoke pollution levels and population density. Visibility reached its worst level at night, when dispersion conditions were poorest, with the entire central and northern regions registering poor visibility levels (with a visual range of less than 2 km). This study emphasises the use of numerical models to predict, with high spatial and temporal resolutions, the population that may be exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution caused by ongoing wildfires. It offers valuable information to the public, civil protection agencies, and health organisations to assist in lessening the impact of wildfires on society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional NO2 monitoring devices are relatively cumbersome, expensive, and have a relatively high-power consumption that limits their use to fixed sites. On the other hand, they offer high-quality measurements. In contrast, the low-cost NO2 sensors offer greater flexibility, are smaller, and allow greater coverage of the area with the measuring devices. However, their disadvantage is much lower accuracy. The main goal of this study was to investigate the measurement data quality of NO2-B43F Alphasense sensors. The measurement performance analysis of Alphasense NO2-B43F sensors was conducted in two research areas in Poland. Sensors were placed near fixed, professional air quality monitoring stations, carrying out measurements based on reference methods, in the following periods: July–November, and December–May. Results of the study show that without using sophisticated correction methods, the range of measured air pollution concentrations may be greater than their actual values in ambient air—measured in the field by fixed stations. In the case of summer months (with air temperature over 30 °C), the long-term mean absolute percentage error was over 150% and the sensors, using the methods recommended by the manufacturer, in the case of high temperatures could even show negative values. After applying the mathematical correction functions proposed in this article, it was possible to significantly reduce long-term errors (to 40–70% per month, regardless of the location of the measurements) and eliminate negative measurement values. The proposed method is based on the recalculation of the raw measurement, air temperature, and air RH and does not require the use of extensive analytical tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]