Use of spatially refined satellite remote sensing fire detection data to initialize and evaluate coupled weather‐wildfire growth model simulations
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Janice L. Coen↗
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Overview of safety research
Aircraft safety is reviewed by first establishing a perspective of air transportation accidents as a function of calendar year, geographic area, and phase of flight, and then by describing the threats to safety and NASA research underway in the three representative areas of engine operational problems, meteorological phenomena, and fire. Engine rotor burst protection, aircraft nacelle fire extinguishment, the aircraft-weather interface, severe weather wind shears and turbulence, clear air turbulence, and lightning are among the topics covered. Fire impact management through fire resistant materials technology development is emphasized.
Enders, J. H.↗
Wildfire Risk Support via Satellite-Derived Vegetation Health and Land Surface Model Soil Moisture
Land Surface Model (LSM) and evaporative demand products provide advanced lead time to wildfire conditions that complement traditional fire indices and represent short-term changes that add context to overall, long-term drought conditions. Established fire indices typically use weather indicators (i.e., precipitation, temperature) and estimated dead fuel moisture to indirectly obtain land surface and sub-surface characterization. The convergence of LSM shallow and deep-layer soil moisture output and satellite-derived vegetation health combine to provide a tool for stakeholders to examine trends in the state of land surface conditions that can help assess wildfire threat. Satellite remote sensing data can constrain near-real time vegetation characteristics within the LSM and/or provide a derived stress index in order to help characterize the wildfire risk. In addition, a percentile product of soil moisture is derived from a comparison of current LSM conditions to the historical record of the LSM in order to put the current conditions in perspective relative to the season and geographic region. The 2015 season as well as the 2018 Camp Fire Complex in California were examined in terms of the changes in LSM soil moisture and vegetation states. Satellite vegetation health consistently showed decreases a month prior to wildfire initiation. Additionally, maximum changes in total column soil moisture corresponded with the greatest concentration of fire locations. While soil moisture deficits occurred in the shallow layers across northern California in 2018, significant deficits at all sub-surface levels were seen ahead of the Camp Fire event. This presentation will demonstrate the complementary value of LSM output and satellite measured vegetation health to diagnose short-term deficits in sub-surface soil moisture and the rapid decline in vegetation health which precedes large wildfire events.
Wildfire↗
Evaluation of a Potential for Enhancing the Decision Support System of the Interagency Modeling and Atmospheric Assessment Center with NASA Earth Science Research Results
NASA's objective for the Applied Sciences Program of the Science Mission Directorate is to expand and accelerate the realization of economic and societal benefits from Earth science, information, and technology. This objective is accomplished by using a systems approach to facilitate the incorporation of Earth observations and predictions into the decision-support tools used by partner organizations to provide essential services to society. The services include management of forest fires, coastal zones, agriculture, weather prediction, hazard mitigation, aviation safety, and homeland security. In this way, NASA's long-term research programs yield near-term, practical benefits to society. The Applied Sciences Program relies heavily on forging partnerships with other Federal agencies to accomplish its objectives. NASA chooses to partner with agencies that have existing connections with end-users, information infrastructure already in place, and decision support systems that can be enhanced by the Earth science information that NASA is uniquely poised to provide (NASA, 2004).
Blonski, Slawomir↗
Advanced Weather Hazard Perception Capabilities for Remotely Piloted Aircraft in Wildland Fire Operations
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Tyler L Willhite↗
The LATEST Project: Operational Assessment of Total Lightning Data in the U.S.
A government, university, and industry alliance has joined forces to transition total lightning observations from ground-based research networks and NASA satellites (LIS/TRMM) to improve the short range prediction of severe weather. This interest builds on the desire of the U.S Weather Research Program to foster a national Nowcasting Test Bed, with this specific transition activity initiated through the NASA short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center in Huntsville, AL. A kick-off national workshop sponsored by the SPoRT Center was held in Huntsville April 1-2 to identify the common goals and objectives of the research and operational community, and to assign roles and responsibilities within the alliance. The workshop agenda, presentations, and summary are available at the SPoRT Center Web site ( h h under the "Meetings" tab. The next national workshop is planned for 2005 in Dallas, TX. The NASA North Alabama regional Lightning Mapping Array &MA) has been operational in the Huntsville area for 3 years, and has continuously sampled a variety of severe weather systems during that period. A gridded version of the LMA total lightning data is currently being supplied to National Weather Service offices in Huntsville, Nashville and Birmingham through the NWS AWES decision support system, for the purposes of assessing the utility of the data in the nowcasting of severe weather such as tornadoes, damaging straight line winds, flash flooding and other weather hazards (lightning induced forest fires, microbursts). While the raw LMA data have been useful to NWS forecasters, even greater utility would be realized if higher-order data products could be supplied through AWIPS along with the gridded data over a larger domain. In 2003-2004 additional LMA systems have been deployed across the southern US. from Florida to New Mexico, providing an opportunity for more than 20 NWS forecast offices to evaluate the incremental value of total lightning data in the warning decision making process.
Goodman, Steven↗
Hydrometeor development in cold clouds in FIRE
The role of cirrus clouds, particularly in weather and climate processes, has been increasingly investigated. Numerical models have demonstrated the importance of the solar reflectivity and infrared radiation of cirrus clouds in the Earth's radiation budget and climate. These properties depend upon the cloud microphysical characteristics, density, and altitude and hence justify investigation. The results reported were obtained from cold clouds (-20 to -46 C) in the mid to upper troposphere during ten flights of the NCAR King Air as part of the First ISCCP Research Experiment (FIRE) in Wisconsin.
Heymsfield, Andrew J.↗
Test stand for Titan 34D SRM static firing
An existing liquid engine test stand at the AF Astronautics Laboratory was refurbished and extensively modified to accommodate the static firing of the Titan 34D solid rocket motor (SRM) in the vertical nozzle down orientation. The main load restraint structure was designed and built to secure the SRM from lifting off during the firing. In addition, the structure provided weather protection, temperature conditioning of the SRM, and positioning of the measurement and recording equipment. The structure was also used for stacking/de-stacking of SRM segments and other technological processes. The existing stand, its foundation and anchorage were thoroughly examined and reanalyzed. Necessary stand modifications were carried out to comply with the requirements of the Titan 34D SRM static firing.
Glozman, Vladimir↗
Climate-induced changes in forest disturbance and vegetation
New and published climate-model results are discussed which indicate that global warming favors increased rates of forest disturbance as a result of weather more likely to cause forest fires, convective wind storms, coastal flooding, and hurricanes. New sensitivity tests carried out with a vegetation model indicate that climate-induced increases in disturbance could, in turn, significantly alter the total biomass and compositional response of forests to future warming. An increase in disturbance frequency is also likely to increase the rate at which natural vegetation responses to future climate change. The results reinforce the hypothesis that forests could be significantly altered by the first part of the next century. The modeling also confirms the potential utility of selected time series of fossil pollen data for investigating the poorly understood natural patterns of century-scale climate variability.
Overpeck, Jonathan T.↗
Dynamic Domains in Data Production Planning
This paper discusses a planner-based approach to automating data production tasks, such as producing fire forecasts from satellite imagery and weather station data. Since the set of available data products is large, dynamic and mostly unknown, planning techniques developed for closed worlds are unsuitable. We discuss a number of techniques we have developed to cope with data production domains, including a novel constraint propagation algorithm based on planning graphs and a constraint-based approach to interleaved planning, sensing and execution.
Golden, Keith↗
Addressing Usability for Discrete User Goals When Adding New Features to the Worldview Application
The Worldview (https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/) application from NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) provides a low friction solution for users of different scientific backgrounds to access near real-time satellite imagery and data products. Worldview credits its successful growth by displaying new imagery from the Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), which has an increasing archive of 700+ products serving full-resolution satellite imagery from NASA's Earth observing fleet. NASA promotes the open sharing of all data with researchers, private industry, academia, and the general public. Worldview encourages this open data policy. Numerous general news publications feature Worldview for its unique imagery. Worldview also helps scholarly research in identifying field research locations, mapping thermal hotspots of active burning fires, and visualizing theoretical models of weather storm systems.
web application↗
Highlighting Recent Uses of the NASA Worldview Mapping Application
NASA’s Worldview (https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/) web mapping application from the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) provides a low friction solution for users of different scientific backgrounds to access satellite imagery and data products. Worldview uses imagery from the Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), which has an increasing catalog of 800+ products serving global, full-resolution satellite imagery from NASA’s Earth observing fleet. NASA promotes the open sharing of all data with researchers, private industry, academia, and the general public. Worldview encourages this open data policy. Numerous general news publications feature Worldview for its unique imagery. Worldview also helps scholarly research in identifying field research locations, mapping thermal hotspots of active burning fires, and visualizing theoretical models of weather storm systems amongst other uses. This presentation shares some recent uses of Worldview which highlight its capabilities.
Plato, Edward A.↗
Highlighting Recent Uses of the NASA Worldview Mapping Application
NASA’s Worldview (https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/) web mapping application from the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) provides a low friction solution for users of different scientific backgrounds to access satellite imagery and data products. Worldview uses imagery from the Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), which has an increasing catalog of 800+ products serving global, full-resolution satellite imagery from NASA’s Earth observing fleet. NASA promotes the open sharing of all data with researchers, private industry, academia, and the general public. Worldview encourages this open data policy. Numerous general news publications feature Worldview for its unique imagery. Worldview also helps scholarly research in identifying field research locations, mapping thermal hotspots of active burning fires, and visualizing theoretical models of weather storm systems amongst other uses. This presentation shares some recent uses of Worldview which highlight its capabilities.
Plato, Edward A.↗
Impact of Uncertainties and Errors in Converting NWS Radiosonde Hygristor Resistances to Relative Humidity
A set of 2,600 6-second, National Weather Service soundings from NASA's FIRE-II Cirrus field experiment are used to illustrate previously known errors and new potential errors in the VIZ and SDD ) brand relative humidity (RH) sensors and the MicroART processing software. The entire spectrum of RH is potentially affected by at least one of these errors. (These errors occur before being converted to dew point temperature.) Corrections to the errors are discussed. Examples are given of the effect that these errors and biases may have on numerical weather prediction and radiative transfer. The figure shows the OLR calculated for the corrected and uncorrected soundings using an 18-band radiative transfer code. The OLR differences are sufficiently large to warrant consideration when validating line-by-line radiation calculations that use radiosonde data to specify the atmospheric state, or when validating satellite retrievals. in addition, a comparison of observations of RH during FIRE-II derived from GOES satellite, raman lidar, MAPS analyses, NCAR CLASS sondes, and the NWS sondes reveals disagreement in the RH distribution and underlines our lack of an understanding of the climatology of water vapor.
Westphal, Douglas L.↗
Impact of Uncertainties and Errors in Converting NWS Radiosonde Hygristor Resistances to Relative Humidity
A set of 2,600 6-second, National Weather Service soundings from NASA's FIRE-II Cirrus field experiment are used to illustrate previously known errors and new potential errors in the VIZ and SDD brand relative humidity (RH) sensors and the MicroART processing software. The entire spectrum of RH is potentially affected by at least one of these errors. (These errors occur before being converted to dew point temperature.) Corrections to the errors are discussed. Examples are given of the effect that these errors and biases may have on numerical weather prediction and radiative transfer. The figure shows the OLR calculated for the corrected and uncorrected soundings using an 18-band radiative transfer code. The OLR differences are sufficiently large to warrant consideration when validating line-by-line radiation calculations that use radiosonde data to specify the atmospheric state, or when validating satellite retrievals. In addition, a comparison of observations of RE during FIRE-II derived from GOES satellite, raman lidar, MAPS analyses, NCAR CLASS sondes, and the NWS sondes reveals disagreement in the RH distribution and underlines our lack of an understanding of the climatology of water vapor.
Westphal, Douglas L.↗
Vermont Wildland Fires: Investigating the Role of Antecedent Conditions and Recent Environmental Trends in Exacerbating Fire Risk and Potential in Vermont
Under a changing climate, increases in dry conditions and extreme heat events are projected to exacerbate wildfire risk in the northeastern U.S. In recent years, Vermont has observed higher annual temperatures, more frequent heatwaves, increased annual precipitation, extreme flood events, and decreased snowfall. The mechanisms through which environmental factors contribute to increased fire risk in humid environments, such as Vermont, are poorly understood. The team partnered with the National Weather Service, the Vermont Division of Forests, and the University of Vermont to investigate phenological trends and antecedent conditions influencing wildland fire risk. For the phenological analysis, from 2001 to 2023, vegetation data, phenological dates, and snow water equivalent (SWE) values were accessed from Landsat 5Thematic Mapper (TM), Landsat 7Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), Landsat 8Operational Land Imager (OLI), Landsat 9OLI-2, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and the Snow Data Assimilation System (SNODAS), respectively. For the antecedent condition analysis, from 2008 to 2023, soil moisture, Environmental Stress Index, wind speed, minimum relative humidity, and daily precipitation data were obtained from the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS), SERVIR, gridMET Wind, gridMET Humidity, and NClimGrid, respectively. The study found that green-up dates over the study period remain relatively stable, while snowmelt dates appear increasingly variable. Minimum relative humidity was the most significant environmental variable correlated with wildfire risk in Vermont. Results from this study will inform the National Weather Service's preparation of fire forecasts before prescribed burns and support community outreach by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.
Wildland Fire↗
Emissions Characterization and Smoke Transport of A Prescribed Fire
Under the background of climate change, vast regions of the world will face a hotter and probably drier future that favors ignition and spread of wildfires. This poses additional challenges to the communities who are fighting the ever-larger wildfires. Fire and smoke models are valuable tools to fire managers and decision-makers to mitigate the impact of fires. Existing fire modeling systems bear large uncertainties due to the difficulty in collecting data to characterize fire behavior and smoke transport. More observations are urgently needed for improvement of fire modeling and reduction in model uncertainty. The coordinated prescribed burn experiment, such as the Fire and Smoke Model and Measurement Evaluation Experiment (FSMMEE), will allow the concurrent collection of critical measurements of fuel, fire behavior, smoke, and meteorology to better understand and model fires. In this preliminary investigation, we employed the data from the prescribed burn experiment at Langdon Mountain, Utah, in November 2019, to reconstruct the fire emissions and characterize the smoke transport. The NASA Unified Weather Research and Forecasting Model (NU-WRF) was utilized to assist in identifying the potential pre-fire remote sensing capabilities, such as fuel load, moisture, and fire radiative power, which are helpful to model development and advancement. Along the way, two sets of NU-WRF experiments would be done by applying either a default fire emissions inventory (i.e., NASA’s Quick Fire Emissions Dataset, QFED) or reconstructed fire emissions using the data collected from the prescribed fire. The results would help answer the questions such as “How do reconstructed emissions compare to QFED emissions and their impact on plume transport”.
NU-WRF↗
Radiative properties of cirrus clouds inferred from broadband measurements during FIRE
It is well known that clouds are significant modulators of weather and climate because of their effects on the radiation field and thus on the energy balance of the earth atmosphere system. As a result, the accurate prediction of weather and climate depends to a significant degree on the accuracy with which cloud radiation interactions can be described. The broadband radiative and microphysical properties of five cirrus cloud systems are reported, as observed from the NCAR Sabreliner during the FIRE first Cirrus IFO, in order to better understand cirrus cloud-radiation interactions. A broadband infrared (BBIR) radiative transfer model is used to deduce BBIR absorption coefficients in order to assess the impact of the cirrus clouds on infrared radiation. The relationships of these absorption coefficients to temperature and microphysical characteristics are explored.
Smith, William L., Jr.↗