Wildfire – Page 3 – The Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy

Study: Modeling Wildfire Smoke Feedback Mechanisms Using a Coupled Fire-Atmosphere Model With a Radiatively Active Aerosol Scheme (July 2019)

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Abstract: During the summer of 2015, a number of large wildfires burned across Northern California in areas of localized topographic relief. Persistent valley smoke hindered fire-fighting efforts, delayed helicopter operations, and exposed communities to extreme concentrations of particulate matter. It was hypothesized that smoke from the wildfires reduced the amount of incoming solar radiation reaching […]

October 12, 2023

Study: Evaluation of Novel NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Aerosol Products and Assessment of Smoke Height Boundary Layer Ratio During Extreme Smoke Events in the Western USA

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Abstract: We analyze new aerosol products from NASA satellite retrievals over the western USA during August 2013, with special attention to locally generated wildfire smoke and downwind plume structures. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 550 nm from MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) (Terra and Aqua Collections 6 and 6.1) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite […]

October 12, 2023

Study: Future climate risks from stress, insects and fire across US forests (May 2022)

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Abstract: Forests are currently a substantial carbon sink globally. Many climate change mitigation strategies leverage forest preservation and expansion, but rely on forests storing carbon for decades to centuries. Yet climate-driven disturbances pose critical risks to the long-term stability of forest carbon. We quantify the climate drivers that influence wildfire and climate stress-driven tree mortality, […]

October 12, 2023

Study: Indigenous land-use reduced catastrophic wildfires on the Fish Lake Plateau (April 2021)

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Abstract: Climatic conditions exert an important influence on wildfire activity in the western United States; however, Indigenous farming activity may have also shaped the local fire regimes for millennia. The Fish Lake Plateau is located on the Great Basin–Colorado Plateau boundary, the only region in western North America where maize farming was adopted then suddenly […]

October 12, 2023

Study: Wildfire smoke trends worsening for Western U.S. (April 2021)

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Abstract: Combining multiple sources of information on atmospheric composition, wildland fire emissions, and fire area burned, we link decadal air quality trends in Western US urban centers with wildland fire activity during the months of August and September for the years 2000–2019. We find spatially consistent trends in extreme levels (upper quantile) of fine particulate […]

October 12, 2023

Study: Wildfire plumes in the Western US are reaching greater heights and injecting more aerosols aloft as wildfire activity intensifies (July 2022)

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Abstract: By producing a first-of-its-kind, decadal-scale wildfire plume rise climatology in the Western U.S. and Canada, we identify trends toward enhanced plume top heights, aerosol loading aloft, and near-surface smoke injection throughout the American West. Positive and significant plume trends suggest a growing impact of Western US wildfires on air quality at the local to […]

October 9, 2023

Study: A climate risk analysis of Earth’s forests in the 21st century (Sep. 2022)

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Abstract: Climate change is having negative effects on forests through extreme heat, drought, and disturbances. Predicting the impact of future climate change on forests is challenging because each approach relies on assumptions and incomplete data. Anderegg et al. compared results from three major modeling approaches that provide information on different facets of risk: a global […]

October 9, 2023

Study: Climate change greatly escalates forest disturbance risks to US property values (Aug. 2023)

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Abstract: Anthropogenic climate change is projected to drive increases in climate extremes and climate-sensitive ecosystem disturbances such as wildfire with enormous economic impacts. Understanding spatial and temporal patterns of risk to property values from climate-sensitive disturbances at national and regional scales and from multiple disturbances is urgently needed to inform risk management and policy efforts. […]

October 9, 2023

Study: Community helps scientists evaluate wildfire smoke forecasts (Nov. 2020)

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Abstract: Smoke forecasts for wildfires in central Utah were evaluated using low-cost air quality sensors and measurements from an instrument attached to a public transit train car. Preliminary results from this study suggest that calibrated low-cost sensors can measure pollutant concentrations during wildfire smoke events within 10% of values measured by traditional air quality stations. […]

October 9, 2023