Interaction between a Wildfire and the Sea-Breeze Front

Hanley, Deborah E.; Cunningham, Philip; Goodrick, Scott L.

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-32530-4_7

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The analysis by Johnson et al () of the Waldo fire leveraged manual interpretation of radar fine‐line boundary for positioning of the convective outflow, as well as plume growth as analyzed by reconstructed range‐height indicators and echo tops. Similar analysis has been applied to analyze the gravity currents of sea breezes, which are known to have a similar but perhaps less intense effect on wildfires (Hanley et al, ). Fine‐line boundaries associated with a dramatic change in air density are also typically observed in southern Australia from the leading edge of cold fronts, which bring strong wind speed and direction changes affecting fire behavior (Bannister, ; Crook & Sun, ; Garratt, ; May et al, ).…”

Section: Observational Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildfire and Weather Radar: A Review

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research in the pursuit of better understanding of fire behavior and fire‐atmosphere interaction has frequently encountered a dearth of observational data, especially from events that cause most impact. Here we show that meteorological radar has been demonstrated as an effective tool for profiling the microphysics, thermodynamics, and fire behavior feedback of wildfire plumes, including for cases with deep and moist convection occurring in the fire plume. A synthesis of knowledge on the use of radar for the analysis of wildfire is presented, and the new term pyrometeor is introduced to describe the range of scatterers observed by radar, the reflectivity signature of which is determined by interacting processes of wildfire behavior and atmospheric convection. The reflectivity theories of pyrometeors are compared, and it is shown that there are gaps in knowledge on the size distributions of pyrometeors as well as the complex dielectrics. Observational case studies are compared across plume microphysics, plume thermodynamics and deep pyroconvection, and operational usage of radar to monitor wildfire. The dominant hypothesis of reflectivity is scattering from ash particles, though theories for scattering such as from larger debris exist, although evidence is limited for any hypothesis. Vortices have also been identified using Doppler velocity radar data, but there is limited understanding of their cause and influence on fire‐atmosphere interactions. Recommendations are provided for methods and data sets to advance the application of radar for observing and understanding wildfires, including for plume microphysics and atmosphere‐fire interactions.

show abstract

Section: Observational Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildfire and Weather Radar: A Review

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These features include sea breeze convergence, topographic effects combined with heavy fuel loading, potential atmospheric instability realised by fire energy, dry air entrainment, low level wind profiles and atmospheric boundary layer stability. These features have also been documented by others; Mills (2005) describes cases of dry air entrainment, Hanley et al (2005) describes the interaction between a wildfire and a sea breeze front, Sharples (2009) describes the ways in which topography affects fire behaviour and Fromm et al (2006) document a dramatic pyro-convection incident. All these studies comprise a body of evidence illustrating why a complete fire weather forecast must include elements beyond near surface temperature, humidity and wind.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 61%

The Kangaroo Island bushfires of 2007, A meteorological case study and WRF-fire simulation

Peace

Mattner²,

Mills³

2011

Chan, F., Marinova, D. And Anderssen, R.S. (Eds) MODSIM2011, 19th International Congress on Modelling and Simulation.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In December 2007, Kangaroo Island was set ablaze by numerous dry lightning strikes. Our research into the event has been conducted in two parts; a case study investigating the interactions between the local meteorology and observed fire behaviour, followed by simulations using the coupled atmosphericfire behaviour model WRF-fire. The findings from the case study highlight the importance of including information on atmospheric instability and spatial variation in meteorological parameters in fire weather forecasts. Our preliminary simulations using WRF-fire have explored the ability of the model to capture phenomena observed in the case study. The case study identified two occurrences of unusual fire behaviour which have been simulated: the first, when a fire located in a local sea breeze front convergence zone produced a spectacular convection column which developed by release of potential atmospheric instability triggered by local lifting; the second, when unprecedented fire behaviour was observed in relatively benign conditions, hypothesised to be due to convective plume entrainment of dry air aloft, enhanced by topographically driven processes and very dry, open structured fuels. The circumstances leading to the unusual fire behaviour(s) illustrate known limitations in the current Australian approach to fire weather forecasting, which neglects temporal and spatial variations, three dimensional atmospheric evolution and any interaction of the fire with the atmosphere. We used the coupled atmosphere-fire model WRF-fire to simulate the fires, with the initial aim of running WRF-fire on an Australian event and subsequently to assess the ability of WRF-fire to simulate the vertical dynamics and fire-atmosphere coupling observed in the case studies.

show abstract

“…Subsequent to radar observations of the interaction of a fire with a sea breeze front (described by Hanley et al (2005)), Cunningham performed a series of idealised simulations to investigate the interactions between a density current and a buoyant plume. The simulations of Cunningham (2007) are of particular interest in the context of the Layman burn, because his results showed an significant increase in plume (fire) activity preceding (rather than concomitant with) the arrival of the (frontal) density current.…”

Section: Convergencementioning

confidence: 99%