Fire Modeling Group
The group's work extends to a comprehensive climatic analysis of fuel moisture, contributing to a deeper understanding of how changing climate conditions affect wildfire dynamics. They have generated a novel gridded fuel moisture dataset that is invaluable for both research and operational applications. Utilizing state-of-the-art hardware, including high-performance-computing clusters and NVIDIA GH200 Superchips, the group ensures their simulations are both fast and accurate, supporting advanced modeling efforts in real-time and providing timely insights crucial for effective wildfire management and response. The fuel moisture data can be found the dedicated website https://www.fuelmoisture.us .
A key focus of the group is the integration of real-time fire observations from satellites and airborne infrared perimeters into their predictive models. Incorporating these fire observations significantly enhances the accuracy of fire spread predictions, aiding emergency responders in managing active wildfire scenarios. Additionally, the group has developed a sophisticated fuel moisture data assimilation system that integrates observations from automatic weather stations, providing critical information on the moisture content of various fuels, which is essential for predicting fire behavior. The group is also pioneering the use of satellite data to estimate live fuel moisture levels, enabling monitoring of vegetation moisture.
As part of the Open Wildfire Modeling Group, WIRC collaborates with developers of open-source wildfire models to address local and global wildfire problems. They believe that using state-of-the-art fire models should be accessible and have developed easy-to-use web-based solutions to assist in wildfire forecasting and prescribed burns. Numerical forecasts initiated from a web controller are executed on a supercomputer and uploaded to a web server, making them accessible from any device with an internet connection and a browser. This seamless integration of technology and expertise positions the WIRC Wildfire Modeling Group at the forefront of wildfire research and operational support.
The WIRC Wildfire Modeling Group has created a fuel moisture repository portal that offers easy access to the national fuel moisture database. This innovative system allows users to download data and utilize advanced plotting and filtering tools to analyze critical fuel moisture observations. By providing this valuable resource, the portal supports researchers, land managers, and emergency responders in understanding and managing wildfire risks. The user-friendly interface ensures that essential data is readily available, enhancing decision-making processes related to wildfire prediction, prevention, and response. This repository exemplifies the group's commitment to leveraging technology to improve wildfire management and resilience.
The Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center (WIRC) fire modeling group, led by Dr. Adam Kochanski, is dedicated to advancing our understanding of how wildfires create their own weather and impact air quality. The overarching goal of the WIRC modeling group is to improve current fire, smoke, and weather forecasting capabilities by building new coupled fire-atmosphere models that account for fire impacts on local weather conditions and air quality. This includes developing and running state-of-the-art forecasting and data assimilation systems based on the coupled fire-atmosphere model (WRF-SFIRE) to conduct numerical experiments, provide operational support for current wildfires, and lay the groundwork for future weather, fire spread, and air quality models.