We investigated smoke emissions from fires in savanna, forest, and agricultural ecosystems by airborne sampling of plumes close to prescribed burns and incidental fires in southern Africa. Aerosol samples were collected on glass fiber filters and on stacked filter units, consisting of a Nuclepore prefilter for particles larger than similar to 1-2 mu m and a Teflon second filter stage for the submicron fraction. The samples were analyzed for soluble ionic components, organic carbon, and black carbon. Onboard the research aircraft, particle number and volume distributions as a function of size were determined with a laser-optical particle counter and the black carbon content of the aerosol with an aethalometer. We determined the emission ratios (relative to CO sub(2) and CO) and emission factors (relative to the amount of biomass burnt) for the various aerosol constituents. The smoke aerosols were rich in organic and black carbon, the latter representing 10-30% of the aerosol mass. K super(+) and NH sub(4) super(+) were the dominant cationic species in the smoke of most fires, while Cl super(-) and SO sub(4) super(2-) were the most important anions. The aerosols were unusually rich in Cl super(-), probably due to the high Cl content of the semiarid vegetation. Comparison of the element budget of the fuel before and after the fires shows that the fraction of the elements released during combustion is highly variable between elements. In the case of the halogen elements, almost the entire amount released during the fire is present in the aerosol phase, while in the case of C, N, and S, only a small proportion ends up as particulate matter. This suggests that the latter elements are present predominantly as gaseous species in the fresh fire plumes studied here.