BOULDER — Scientists at Boulder’s National Center for Atmospheric Research are touting a recently developed computer modeling technique they say can provide accurate predictions of the growth and behavior of long-lived wildfires.
The approach to wildfire mapping, detailed in a study that appeared in an online issue of Geophysical Research Letters, is the result of a partnership between NCAR and scientists at the University of Maryland.
The technique uses newly available, fine-scale satellite data collected on active wildfires, combined with advanced simulations of the interactions of fire and weather, to offer its forecasts, according to its developers.
“Mostly wildfires have been dealt with by foresters, but when we looked at them with our atmospheric scientist eyes, we saw a lot of things we understood from studies of thunderstorms and other meteorological phenomena,” NCAR scientist Janice Coen said.
“As the fire consumes fuel, it produces heat and water vapor,” she said. “This makes the air warmer than the air around it, so it wants to rise, and more air has to move in to the base of the column to replace it, so that affects the winds near the fire.”
Coen said that by “cycling,” or updating the fire behavior model with fresh satellite data every 12 to 24 hours, the scientists showed they could forecast fire growth and behavior. Joe Rubino, Daily Camera
