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Author(s):
Wei Min Hao, Shawn P. Urbanski
Year Published:

Cataloging Information

Topic(s):
Fire Effects
Ecological - First Order
Fuel Consumption
Management Approaches
Smoke Monitoring
Air Quality
Smoke & Air Quality
Fire & Smoke Models
Smoke Emissions

NRFSN number: 11150
FRAMES RCS number: 326
Record updated:

This document contains a description of the air quality forecasting system in operation at the Missoula Fire Science Laboratory. This air quality forecasting system has been steadily assimilating new techniques and algorithms as they have been developed over the past four years. Individual components as well as assemblies of components have utilized this system as a proving ground. Technology transfer from this project is realized in multiple forms. Data products, many of which were not previously available anywhere, are made available on our prototype website. These include: fire detections, burn scar detections, emission maps, and a fuel map defined in terms of the FOFEM reference database. Software applications have been upgraded and optimized for integration with the rest of the system: the Carbon Bond IV photochemical mechanism has been added to HYSPLIT, and the FARSITE fire area simulator has been modified to work from the Linux command line. Finally, the web based publishing of four dimensional grids, as both data and as maps, is being added to the publicly available GeoTools library and GeoServer web map server. This project has produced techniques, algorithms and software of generic utility. The burn scar algorithm has been published in a refereed journal. Data products and software applications have been made publicly available. These generic components have been assembled into an air quality forecasting system in operation at the Missoula Fire Science Laboratory. The current generation of products is the foundation and core of our ongoing work in air quality forecasting and will continually be improved over time.

Citation

Hao, Wei Min; Urbanski, Shawn. 2005. Automated forecasting of smoke dispersion and air quality using NASA terra and aqua satellite data (Task 5). Joint Fire Science Project 01-1-5-03. Missoula, MT: USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. 17 p.

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