QES-Fire: a dynamically coupled fast-response wildfire model

Moody, Matthew J.; Gibbs, Jeremy A.; Krueger, Steven K.; Mallia, Derek V.; Pardyjak, Eric R.; Kochanski, Adam K.; Bailey, Brian N.; Stoll, Rob

doi:10.1071/wf21057

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…As can be seen, the CampBase case (Figure 8a) achieves maximum temperatures of ~310 K at several time instances between 1845 UTC and 2045 UTC. In contrast, the CampCan, CampTGH1, and CampTGH2 cases (Figure 8b-d) achieve considerably higher maximum temperatures, reaching ~390, ~380, and ~380 K several times, which are likely more realistic compared to the CampBase case based on the pattern observed in the prescribed burns (e.g., [25,[60][61][62][63][64][65][66]). The higher maximum temperatures of the CampCan case compared to CampTGH1 and CampTGH2 cases can be attributed to the unrealistically magnified fire heat fluxes by the exponential decay scheme.…”

Section: Buoyancy Analysismentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Buoyancy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the simulated temperature and vertical velocity of the Camp Fire cases are investigated in this section. However, due to the lack of temperature and vertical velocity observations during the Camp Fire, the features of the simulated temperature and vertical velocity can be compared qualitatively with the features observed during prescribed burns experiments (e.g., [25,[60][61][62][63][64][65][66]). Figure 7 depicts the vertical cross sections of the simulated temperature and vertical velocity along black dashed line shown in Figure 4 for the Camp Fire cases for the same timestamp of plume cross sections in Figure 5.…”

Section: Buoyancy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Role of Fuel Characteristics and Heat Release Formulations in Coupled Fire-Atmosphere Simulation

Shamsaei

Juliano

Roberts

et al. 2023

Fire

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In this study, we focus on the effects of fuel bed representation and fire heat and smoke distribution in a coupled fire-atmosphere simulation platform for two landscape-scale fires: the 2018 Camp Fire and the 2021 Caldor Fire. The fuel bed representation in the coupled fire-atmosphere simulation platform WRF-Fire currently includes only surface fuels. Thus, we enhance the model by adding canopy fuel characteristics and heat release, for which a method to calculate the heat generated from canopy fuel consumption is developed and implemented in WRF-Fire. Furthermore, the current WRF-Fire heat and smoke distribution in the atmosphere is replaced with a heat-conserving Truncated Gaussian (TG) function and its effects are evaluated. The simulated fire perimeters of case studies are validated against semi-continuous, high-resolution fire perimeters derived from NEXRAD radar observations. Furthermore, simulated plumes of the two fire cases are compared to NEXRAD radar reflectivity observations, followed by buoyancy analysis using simulated temperature and vertical velocity fields. The results show that while the improved fuel bed and the TG heat release scheme have small effects on the simulated fire perimeters of the wind-driven Camp Fire, they affect the propagation direction of the plume-driven Caldor Fire, leading to better-matching fire perimeters with the observations. However, the improved fuel bed representation, together with the TG heat smoke release scheme, leads to a more realistic plume structure in comparison to the observations in both fires. The buoyancy analysis also depicts more realistic fire-induced temperature anomalies and atmospheric circulation when the fuel bed is improved.

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Section: Buoyancy Analysismentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Buoyancy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Buoyancy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Role of Fuel Characteristics and Heat Release Formulations in Coupled Fire-Atmosphere Simulation

Shamsaei

Juliano

Roberts

et al. 2023

Fire

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“…This is an important finding given that updraft mergers typically lead to deeper convection and are still not well understood (Glenn & Krueger, 2017). Updraft mergers are an understudied topic in fire weather that have recently been explored numerically (Moody et al., 2023), and it is hypothesized that individual sources of convection that produce these updrafts are interacting during ascent and trigger deeper plume rise along with enhanced convergence and convection.…”

Section: An Evaluation Of Dynamical Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isolating and Investigating Updrafts Induced by Wildland Fires Using an Airborne Doppler Lidar During FIREX‐AQ

et al. 2023

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Understanding the complex dynamical interactions that occur during the evolution of a wildland fire still remains a challenge within the research community. Processes such as entrainment, the incident wind field, the interaction between neighboring updrafts, among other processes, motivates the need for more intensive measurement campaigns to determine the mechanisms responsible for the processes observed as wildland fire updrafts evolve. A recent opportunity to examine processes associated with wildland fires was made possible with a Doppler lidar (DL) mounted on a Twin Otter aircraft to measure horizontal and vertical winds during the 2019 Fire Influence on Regional‐to‐Global Environments and Air Quality campaign. Using the data collected, a technique was developed to isolate updrafts over designated hotspots with the intention of statistically analyzing the updraft samples as well as assessing specific cases that underscore the complex dynamical interactions generated by wildland fire behavior. Strong evidence in support of statistically derived relationships between the updraft characteristics and downdraft extrema at the flanks of updrafts are shown using methods developed herein. In addition to the influence of entrainment/detrainment on the updraft structure are features such as updraft displacement and interacting updrafts that could only be resolved by a high along‐ and cross‐beam resolution DL. Lastly, it was found that a high degree of symmetry between profiles to the left and right of core updrafts was preserved for most of the cases, which validates some of the assumptions typically used in idealized updraft formulations.

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“…A follow-up field experiment, known as FireFlux-II, took place at the same site in 2013, with more measurements designed to fill gaps in the original FireFlux experiment and provide further information on fire-atmosphere interactions and fire-induced turbulence regimes . The data from FireFlux II have been used to validate fire behavior models (Moody et al, 2022), but the results on the intensive collection of turbulence data from FireFlux II are yet to be reported in the peer-reviewed literature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atmospheric turbulence observed during a fuel-bed-scale low intensity surface fire

Seitz,

Zhong,

Charney

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Abstract. The ambient atmospheric environment affects the growth and spread of wildland fires, whereas heat and moisture release from the fires and the reduction of the surface drag in the burned areas can significantly alter local atmospheric conditions. Observational studies on fire-atmosphere interactions have used instrumented towers to collect data during prescribed fires, but a few towers in an operational scale burn plot (usually > 103 m2) have made it extremely challenging to capture the myriad of factors controlling fire-atmosphere interactions, many of which exhibit strong spatial variability. Here, we present analyses of atmospheric turbulence data collected using a 4×4 array of fast-response sonic anemometers during a fire experiment on a 10 m × 10 m burn plot. In addition to confirming some of the previous findings on atmospheric turbulence associated with low-intensity surface fires, our results revealed substantial heterogeneity in turbulent intensity and heat and momentum fluxes just above the combustion zone. Despite the small plot (100 m2), fire-induced atmospheric turbulence exhibited strong dependence on the downwind distance from the initial line fire and the relative position specific to the fire front as the surface fire spread through the burn plot. This result highlights the necessity for coupled atmosphere-fire behavior models to have 1–2 m grid spacing to resolve heterogeneities in fire-atmosphere interactions that operate on spatiotemporal scales relevant to atmospheric turbulence. The findings here have important implications for modeling smoke dispersion, as atmospheric dispersion characteristics in the vicinity of a wildland fire are directly affected by fire-induced turbulence.

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QES-Fire: a dynamically coupled fast-response wildfire model

Cited by 12 publications

References 54 publications

The Role of Fuel Characteristics and Heat Release Formulations in Coupled Fire-Atmosphere Simulation

The Role of Fuel Characteristics and Heat Release Formulations in Coupled Fire-Atmosphere Simulation

Isolating and Investigating Updrafts Induced by Wildland Fires Using an Airborne Doppler Lidar During FIREX‐AQ

Atmospheric turbulence observed during a fuel-bed-scale low intensity surface fire

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