Smoke plume height measurement of prescribed burns in the south-eastern United States

Liu, Yongqiang; Goodrick, Scott L.; Achtemeier, Gary L.; Forbus, Ken; Combs, D.K.

doi:10.1071/wf11072

Cited by 23 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 52 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…From the 40 Daysmoke outputs, the mean and the standard deviation of the plume heights and the downwind concentrations were calculated at 10-min intervals. Simulated plume heights were evaluated with plume height measurements from Vaisala CL31 backscatter ceilometer designed around laser LIDAR technology (Liu et al 2013). The ceilometer emits short, powerful laser pulses at a wavelength of 0.9 mm in a vertical or slant direction.…”

Section: Plume Heightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire emission uncertainties and their effect on smoke dispersion predictions: a case study at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, USA

Davis

Ottmar

Liu

et al. 2015

Int. J. Wildland Fire

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Prescribed burning is practiced to benefit ecosystems but the resulting emissions can adversely affect air quality. A better understanding of the uncertainties in emission estimates and how these uncertainties affect smoke predictions is critical for model-based decision making. This study examined uncertainties associated with estimating fire emissions and how they affected smoke concentrations downwind from a prescribed burn that was conducted at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, US. Estimated variables used in the modelled emission calculation were compared with field measurements. Fuel loadings, fuel consumption and emission factors were simulated using Photo Series, Consume, and previously published values. A plume dispersion model was used to study the effect of uncertainty in emissions on ground concentration prediction. The fire emission models predicted fuel loading, fuel consumption and emission factor within 15% of measurements. Approximately 18% uncertainty in field measurements of PM 2.5 emissions and 36% uncertainty attributed to variability in emission estimating models resulted respectively in 20% and 42% ground level PM 2.5 concentration uncertainties in dispersion modelling using Daysmoke. Uncertainty in input emissions influences the concentrations predicted by the smoke dispersion model to the same degree as does the model's inherent uncertainty due to turbulence.

show abstract

Section: Plume Heightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire emission uncertainties and their effect on smoke dispersion predictions: a case study at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, USA

Davis

Ottmar

Liu

et al. 2015

Int. J. Wildland Fire

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Small-scale radars, capable of filling in the coverage gap noted above, have the ability to observe smoke plumes close to the ground, where the intensity of the smoke and debris is greatest[15]. The development of small-scale weather radar networks in Australia can lead to an improvement in bushfire…”

mentioning

confidence: 95%

Weather and bushfire observation using low cost X-band phased array radars

Palumbo

Al-Ashwal

Ferguson

et al. 2013

2013 International Conference on Radar

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Small-scale, low-cost X-band radars are an emerging technology that offer signficant advantages over traditional largescale systems for weather and remote sensing applications. Xband radars provide enhanced angular resolution at a fraction of the aperture size compared to larger, lower frequency systems. Because of their low cost and small form factor, these radars can now be integrated into more research and commercial applications. This paper presents the research activities currently underway using a low-cost, X-band (9.41 GHz) Phase-Tilt Radar. The "phase-tilt" design is a novel architecture that allows for rapid electronic scanning in azimuth and mechanical tilting in elevation, as a compromise between cost and performance. This paper presents the relevant background information on the technology, as well as some initial studies and field work on the research activities performed.

show abstract

“…Although a reasonable performance of the plume models has been demonstrated for selected case studies on local or regional scales, the knowledge about smoke plume heights on a global scale is very limited due to a lack of observational data sets. Besides a small number of airborne in situ and ground-based remote-sensing studies, e.g., Melnikov et al (2008) or Liu et al (2013), satellite data sets provide observations of potentially global coverage. Although smoke plume measurement uncertainties are only ±200 m for well-constrained plumes Nelson et al, 2013), only a limited number of plumes are available on the global scale, because a partly manual analysis is required for each individual plume.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire emission heights in the climate system – Part 1: Global plume height patterns simulated by ECHAM6-HAM2

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. We use the global circulation model ECHAM6 extended by the aerosol module HAM2 to simulate global patterns in wildfire emission heights. Prescribed plume heights in ECHAM6 are replaced by an implementation of a simple, semi-empirical plume height parametrization. In a first step, the global performance of the plume height parametrization is evaluated for plumes reported in the Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) Plume Height Project (MPHP) data set. Our results show that the parametrization simulates a largely reasonable global distribution of plume heights. While the modeled global mean plume height (1411±646 m) is in good agreement with the observed mean (1382±702 m), the upper and lower tails of the plume height distribution tend to be slightly underrepresented. Furthermore, we compare plume heights simulated by the simple parametrization to a more complex, analytical plume model. Major differences in global plume height distributions are found for the lowest 1.5 km, but reasonable agreement is observed for higher plumes. In a second step, fire radiative power (FRP) as reported in the global fire assimilation system (GFAS) is used to simulate plume heights for observed fires globally for the period 2005-2011. The global fraction of simulated daytime plumes injecting emissions into the free troposphere (FT) ranges from 3.7 ± 0.7 to 5.2 ± 1.0 %. This range is comparable to results from observational studies, but it is much lower than results for prescribed plume heights in the ECHAM6-HAM2 standard setup. Nevertheless, occasionally deep emission injections exceeding 5-7 km in height are simulated for intense fires and favorable meteorological conditions. The application of a prescribed diurnal cycle in FRP turns out to be of minor importance. For a hypothetical doubling in FRP, moderate changes in plume heights of 100-400 m are simulated. These small changes indicate that a potential future increase in fire intensity will only slightly impact the emission heights on a global scale.

show abstract

Smoke plume height measurement of prescribed burns in the south-eastern United States

Cited by 23 publications

References 52 publications

Fire emission uncertainties and their effect on smoke dispersion predictions: a case study at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, USA

Fire emission uncertainties and their effect on smoke dispersion predictions: a case study at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, USA

Weather and bushfire observation using low cost X-band phased array radars

Fire emission heights in the climate system – Part 1: Global plume height patterns simulated by ECHAM6-HAM2

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About