Grassfire plumes are weakly ionized gas. The ionization in the fire plume is due to thermal and chemiionization of incumbent species, which may include graphitic carbon, alkalis and thermally excited radicals, e.g., methyl. The presence of alkalis (e.g., potassium and sodium) in the fires makes thermal ionization a predominant electron producing mechanism in the combustion zone. Alkalis have low dissociation and ionization potentials and therefore require little energy to thermally decompose and give electrons. Assuming a Maxwellian velocity distribution of flame particles and electron-neutral collision frequency much higher than plasma frequency, the propagation of radio waves through a grassfire is predicted to have attenuation and phase shift. Radio wave propagation measurements were performed in a moderate intensity (554 kW m-1) controlled grassfire at 30-and 151-MHz frequencies on a 44 m path using a radio wave interferometer. The maximum temperature measured in the controlled burn was 1071 K and the observed fire depth was 0.9 m. The radio wave interferometer measured attenuation coefficients of 0.033 and 0.054 dB m-1 for 30-and 151-MHz, respectively. At collision frequency of 1.0 9 10 11 s-1 , maximum electron density was determined to be 5.061 9 10 15 m-3 .

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