The Alaska Reference Database originated as the standalone Alaska Fire Effects Reference Database, a ProCite reference database maintained by former BLM-Alaska Fire Service Fire Ecologist Randi Jandt. It was expanded under a Joint Fire Science Program grant for the FIREHouse project (The Northwest and Alaska Fire Research Clearinghouse). It is now maintained by the Alaska Fire Science Consortium and FRAMES, and is hosted through the FRAMES Resource Catalog. The database provides a listing of fire research publications relevant to Alaska and a venue for sharing unpublished agency reports and works in progress that are not normally found in the published literature.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18
Cruz, Alexander
[From the Introduction] In the October-December 2019 issue of WILDFIRE, we described a recently developed rule of thumb for estimating a wildfire’s forward spread rate when burning conditions are severe, namely when wind speeds are high and fuels are critically dry, and the time…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Son, Kim, Wang, Jeong, Woo, Jeong, Lee, Kim, LaPlante, Kwon
The 2015 Paris Agreement led to a number of studies that assessed the impact of the 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C increases in global temperature over preindustrial levels. However, those assessments have not actively investigated the impact of these levels of warming on fire weather. In…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Hanes, Wotton, McFayden, Jurko
The Fire Weather Index (FWI) System codes and indices are commonly communicated and interpreted using a classification system (i.e., Low, Moderate, High, Extreme) by fire management agencies. Adjective classes were developed provincially shortly after the FWI System was…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Holzworth, Brundell, McCarthy, Jacobson, Rodger, Anderson
World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) data on global lightning are used to investigate the increase of total lightning strokes at Arctic latitudes. We use the summertime data from June, July, and August (JJA) which average >200,000 strokes each year above 65°N for the…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
The challenges of the 2020 Fire Year have validated the Cohesive Strategy and proven its foundational value for additional success and achievement across boundaries and landscapes in the West. The following pages offer a snapshot of 2020 activities and successes in the Western…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Toman, Wilson, Jolly, Olsen
Fire weather tools, such as the National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS) and the Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS), have been developed to support wildland fire management decisions. However, little is known about how these tools are used in practice, the…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Rapp, Wilson, Toman, Jolly
Background: Weather plays an integral role in fire management due to the direct and indirect effects it has on fire behavior. However, fire managers may not use all information available to them during the decision-making process, instead utilizing mental shortcuts that can bias…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Nguyen, Kaye
Results are presented from of experiments to determine the susceptibility of rooftops to embers staying in contact during wildfires. Wind tunnel experiments were run in which the rooftops of model houses were covered with model embers and exposed to the wind. Tests covered a…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Achtemeier, Goodrick
Abrupt changes in wind direction and speed caused by thunderstorm-generated gust fronts can, within a few seconds, transform slow-spreading low-intensity flanking fires into high-intensity head fires. Flame heights and spread rates can more than double. Fire mitigation…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Touma, Stevenson, Lehner, Coates
Attribution studies have identified a robust anthropogenic fingerprint in increased 21st century wildfire risk. However, the risks associated with individual aspects of anthropogenic aerosol and greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, biomass burning and land use/land cover change…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Cullen, Axe, Podschwit
National and regional preparedness level (PL) designations support decisions about wildfire risk management. Such decisions occur across the fire season and influence pre-positioning of resources in areas of greatest fire potential, recall of personnel from off-duty status,…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Simpson, Jardine, Archibald, Forrestel, Lehmann, Thomas, Osborne
Plant populations persist under recurrent fire via resprouting from surviving tissues (resprouters) or seedling recruitment (seeders). Woody species are inherently slow maturing, meaning that seeders are confined to infrequent fire regimes. However, for grasses, which mature…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Bresch, Powers, Schwartz, Sobash, Coen
Abrupt changes in wind direction and speed can dramatically impact wildfire development and spread, endangering firefighters. A frequent cause of such wind shifts is outflow from thunderstorms and organised convective systems; thus, their identification and prediction present…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Oliveira de Morais, Berenguer, Barlow, França, Lennox, Malhi, Chesini Rossi, Moraes de Seixas, Ferreira
Leaf-litter production is an essential part of the carbon cycle of tropical forests. In the Amazon, it is influenced by climate, presenting high levels during the driest months of the year. However, it is less established how extreme climatic events may impact leaf-litter…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Pausas, Keeley
No single factor produces wildfires; rather, they occur when fire thresholds (ignitions, fuels, and drought) are crossed. Anomalous weather events may lower these thresholds and thereby enhance the likelihood and spread of wildfires. Climate change increases the frequency with…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Clark
WindNinja, a tool developed by RMRS scientists, delivers high-resolution wind predictions within seconds for emergency fire responders making on-the-ground decisions. The program computes spatially-varying wind fields to help predict winds at small scales in complex terrain.…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Chen, Romps, Seeley, Veraverbeke, Riley, Mekonnen, Randerson
Lightning is an indicator and a driver of climate change. Here, using satellite observations of lightning flash rate and ERA5 reanalysis, we find that the spatial pattern of summer lightning over northern circumpolar regions exhibits a strong positive relationship with the…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Valero, Jofre, Torres
Wildfire behavior predictions typically suffer from significant uncertainty. However, wildfire modeling uncertainties remain largely unquantified in the literature, mainly due to computing constraints. New multifidelity techniques provide a promising opportunity to overcome…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES