A253-04
Fuel and emissions in a prescribed fire in the Blackwater River State Forest during FIREX-AQ: synthesis of observations from ground, aircraft, and satellites and comparison with models

Thursday, 17 December 2020: 05:42
Virtual
Holly Nowell1, Christopher D Holmes1, Amber Jeanine Soja2, Emily Marie Gargulinski3, Kevin Robertson4, J. Kevin Hiers4, Elizabeth Brooke Wiggins2, Charles Fite1, Jessica L McCarty5, Andrew T Hudak6, Glenn S Diskin2 and Donald Ray Blake7, (1)Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, United States, (2)NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, United States, (3)Universities Space Research Association, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, United States, (4)Tall Timbers Research Station, Tallahassee, FL, United States, (5)Miami University Oxford, Oxford, OH, United States, (6)USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Moscow, ID, United States, (7)University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
Prescribed fires are used extensively across the southeastern United States to manage natural resources and reduce wildfire risk. Each year, 7-8 million acres are burned in the region, which accounts for most prescribed fire use nationally (10-12 million acres). We report here comprehensive observations of a typical prescribed fire in the region, combining and comparing measurements from ground, aircraft, and satellite. We use these data to evaluate multiple emission inventories and assess uncertainties in their component modules.

During the NASA-NOAA FIREX-AQ aircraft campaign in summer 2019, we sampled fuels, fuel consumption, and smoke at ground-level in an 863-acre (350 ha) prescribed fire in native longleaf pine communities in the Blackwater River State Forest (BRSF) in the western panhandle of Florida. The NASA DC-8 aircraft sampled the smoke and its chemical evolution from the air for 3 hours. We report ground sampling that estimated fuel load and consumption with multiple methods (GPS mapping, terrestrial and airborne lidar, destructive plot sampling pre- and post-fire at 25 different sites within the burn unit) and collected flask samples of smoke from flaming vs. smoldering combustion and pre- and post-fire ambient air. Fuels at the site were representative of periodically burned pine communities of the southeastern United States composed primarily of pine litter, grasses, and shrubs beneath an open canopy of fire-tolerant pines.

The calculated combustion fractions are compared against values from previous studies and models representing the vegetation type. We evaluate fuel datasets (2 estimates from FCCS) and emissions models (FCCS-based BlueSky/CONSUME, FLAMBE, NEI, FINN, GFED, GFAS, WRF-FIRE, QFED, FEER) against estimates based on ground measurements. In addition, we compare modified combustion efficiency (MCE) and hydrocarbon emission ratios sampled in flasks near ground level with measurements aboard the DC-8. The characterization of the fuels and fire from this single site is the most comprehensive of any fire sampled during FIREX-AQ.

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