A224-0017
FIREXAQ: Insights into satellite- and fuel-based fire emissions
Wednesday, 16 December 2020
Poster
Amber Jeanine Soja, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, United States, Emily Gargulinski, National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, VA, United States, Elizabeth Brooke Wiggins, University of California, Earth System Science, Irvine, CA, United States; Universities Space Research Association Columbia, Columbia, MD, United States, Shobha Kondragunta, NOAA College Park, College Park, MD, United States, Jessica L McCarty, Miami University Oxford, Oxford, OH, United States, Andrew T Hudak, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Moscow, ID, United States, Kevin Heirs, Tall Timbers, Tallahassee, United States, Chuanyu Xu, I.M. Systems Group, Inc, Rockville, MD, United States, Meng Zhou, University of Iowa, Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research, Iowa City, IA, United States and Jun Wang, University of Iowa, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Iowa City, IA, United States
Abstract:
Since the satellite era began, we have had the capability to view Earth and environmental phenomena including fires across landscapes from space. Through the use of these satellite data, we have the ability to estimate fire emissions for emissions inventories, air quality and health, and in chemical transport and climate models. However, there is a disconnect between ground-based and top-down estimates, and the reasons for these differences are not clear.
Using data and information from the NASA/NOAA FIREX-AQ (Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality) airborne field campaign, we will quantify differences found in fire burning on the landscape and the view from space. This campaign sampled both natural and anthropogenic fires across the continental United States and was explicitly focused on fire emissions, air quality, and climate.
The goal of this work is to: provide explanations for among-fire differences, with a focus on missing data; and to suggest viable solutions. First, we will briefly present the methodology used to estimate daily and 1-second emissions for each fire using ground- and satellite-based data. Then, we will compare and contrast the capability of current satellite-based products to track fire across landscapes and quantify fuels. Data and derived products considered include fire weather, FCCS, CDL, MODIS, VIIRS, GOES, Fire Radiative Power, and a nighttime visible energy fraction.
Increased understanding of fire regimes is currently compelling, because fire in human-dominated landscapes is poorly defined, and extreme wildland fire is increasing, largely under the control of weather and climate, which then feeds back to these weather and climate systems.
