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Copyright Copernicus GmbH 2014

Abstract

Coupled atmosphere-fire models can now generate forecasts in real time, owing to recent advances in computational capabilities. WRF-SFIRE consists of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with the fire-spread model SFIRE. This paper presents new developments, which were introduced as a response to the needs of the community interested in operational testing of WRF-SFIRE. These developments include a fuel-moisture model and a fuel-moisture-data-assimilation system based on the Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS) observations, allowing for fire simulations across landscapes and time scales of varying fuel-moisture conditions. The paper also describes the implementation of a coupling with the atmospheric chemistry and aerosol schemes in WRF-Chem, which allows for a simulation of smoke dispersion and effects of fires on air quality. There is also a data-assimilation method, which provides the capability of starting the fire simulations from an observed fire perimeter, instead of an ignition point. Finally, an example of operational deployment in Israel, utilizing some of the new visualization and data-management tools, is presented.

Details

Title
Recent advances and applications of WRF-SFIRE
Author
Mandel, J; Amram, S; Beezley, J D; Kelman, G; Kochanski, A K; Kondratenko, V Y; Lynn, B H; Regev, B; Vejmelka, M
First page
2829
Publication year
2014
Publication date
2014
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
ISSN
15618633
e-ISSN
16849981
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
1621359887
Copyright
Copyright Copernicus GmbH 2014