The relative role of Amazonian and non-Amazonian fires in building up the aerosol optical depth in South America: A five year study (2005-2009)

► How do different South America biomass burning areas contribute building up the AOD? ► We use long term datasets of satellite data and forward trajectory modeling. ► Long-range transport of smoke notably affects the AOD far from the source regions. ► In Northern Amazonia 50% of the AOD is from local fires and 50% is from the Brazilian Caatinga fires. ► In Paraguay and Argentina the non-local contribution of fires to the AOD exceeds 30%.