Wildfire – Page 2 – The Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy

Study: Using geographic information to analyze wildland firefighter situational awareness: Impacts of spatial resolution on visibility assessment

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Abstract: Wildland firefighters must be able to maintain situational awareness to ensure their safety. Crew members, including lookouts and crew building handlines, rely on visibility to assess risk and communicate changing conditions. Geographic information systems and remote sensing offer potential solutions for characterizing visibility using models incorporating terrain and vegetation height. Visibility can be assessed […]

November 15, 2023

Study: Using airborne lidar and machine learning to predict visibility across diverse vegetation and terrain conditions

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Abstract: Visibility analyses, used in many disciplines, rely on viewshed algorithms that map locations visible to an observer based on a given surface model. Mapping continuous visibility over broad extents is uncommon due to extreme computational expense. This study introduces a novel method for spatially-exhaustive visibility mapping using airborne lidar and random forests that requires […]

November 15, 2023

Study: Modeling global indices for estimating non-photosynthetic vegetation cover

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Abstract: Non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV) includes plant litter, senesced leaves, and crop residues. NPV plays an essential role in terrestrial ecosystem processes, and is an important indicator of drought severity, ecosystem disturbance, agricultural resilience, and wildfire danger. Current moderate spatial resolution multispectral satellite systems (e.g., Landsat and Sentinel-2) have only a single band in the 2000–2500 nm shortwave infrared “SWIR2” range where […]

November 15, 2023

Study: Assessing potential safety zone suitability using a new online mapping tool

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Abstract: Safety zones (SZs) are critical tools that can be used by wildland firefighters to avoid injury or fatality when engaging a fire. Effective SZs provide safe separation distance (SSD) from surrounding flames, ensuring that a fire’s heat cannot cause burn injury to firefighters within the SZ. Evaluating SSD on the ground can be challenging, […]

November 15, 2023

Study: Predicting the variability in pedestrian travel rates and times using crowdsourced GPS data

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Abstract: Accurately predicting pedestrian travel times is critically valuable in emergency response, wildland firefighting, disaster management, law enforcement, and urban planning. However, the relationship between pedestrian movement and landscape conditions is highly variable between individuals, making it difficult to estimate how long it will take broad populations to get from one location to another on foot. Although […]

November 15, 2023

Study: Scaled biomass estimation in woodland ecosystems: Testing the individual and combined capacities of satellite multispectral and lidar data

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Abstract: Airborne laser scanning (ALS) data enable accurate modeling and mapping of aboveground biomass (AGB), but the limited spatial and temporal extents of ALS data collection limit the capacity for broad-scale carbon accounting. Conversely, while space-based remote sensing instruments provide increased spatial and temporal coverage, it can be difficult to directly link field-level vegetation biometrics to satellite data […]

November 15, 2023

Study: Theoretical uncertainty analysis of satellite retrieved aerosol optical depth associated with surface albedo & aerosol optical properties

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Abstract: Deriving aerosol optical depth (AOD) from space-borne observations is still challenging due to uncertainties associated with sensor calibration drift, cloud screening, aerosol type classification, and surface reflectance characterization. As an initial step to understanding the physical processes impacting these uncertainties in satellite AOD retrievals, this study outlines a theoretical approach to estimate biases in the satellite […]

November 15, 2023

Study: Assessment of smoke plume height products derived from multisource satellite observations for wildfire in the western US.

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Abstract: As wildfires intensify and fire seasons lengthen across the western U.S., the development of applicable models that can predict the density of smoke plumes and track wildfire-induced air pollution exposures has become critical. Wildfire smoke plume height is a key indicator of the vertical placement of plume mass emitted from wildfire-related aerosol sources in […]

November 15, 2023

Study: Statistical Comparison and Assessment of Four Fire Emissions Inventories for 2013 and a Large Wildfire in the Western United States

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Abstract: Wildland fires produce smoke plumes that impact air quality and human health. To understand the effects of wildland fire smoke on humans, the amount and composition of the smoke plume must be quantified. Using a fire emissions inventory is one way to determine the emissions rate and composition of smoke plumes from individual fires. […]

November 15, 2023

Study: Toward Simulating Dire Wildfire Scenarios

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Abstract: Recent extreme wildfires are motivating unprecedented evacuation planning. A critical need is to consider dire scenarios that allow less time to clear an area than required. Although these scenarios often begin with an ignition near a community, any scenario can become dire due to weather conditions, human response, technology, cascading events, and community design. […]

October 12, 2023