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Type: Conference Proceedings
Author(s): Martin Vejmelka; Adam K. Kochanski; Jan Mandel
Editor(s): Dale D. Wade; Rebekah L. Fox
Compiler(s): Mikel L. Robinson
Publication Date: 2014

Fuel moisture is a major influence on the behavior of wildland fires and an important underlying factor in fire risk. We present a method to assimilate spatially sparse fuel moisture observations from remote automatic weather stations (RAWS) into the moisture model in WRF- SFIRE. WRF-SFIRE is a coupled atmospheric and fire behavior model which simulates the evolution of fuel moisture in idealized fuel species based on atmospheric state. The proposed method uses a modified trend surface model to estimate the fuel moisture field and its uncertainty based on currently available observations. At each grid point of WRF-SFIRE, this information is combined with the model forecast using a nonlinear Kalman filter, leading to an updated estimate of fuel moisture. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the method with tests in two real-world situations: a region in Southern California, where two large Santa Ana fires occurred recently, and on a domain enclosing Colorado.

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Link to this document (37.4 MB; pdf)
Citation: Vejmelka, Martin; Kochanski, Adam K.; Mandel, Jan. 2014. Data assimilation of fuel moisture in WRF-SFIRE. Pages 122-137. In: Wade, Dale D.; Fox, Rebekah L. (Editors); Robinson, Mikel L. (Compiler). Proceedings of 4th Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference, 18-22 February 2013, Raleigh, NC and 1-4 July 2013, St. Petersburg, Russia. Missoula, MT: International Association of Wildland Fire.

Cataloging Information

Topics:
Fire Behavior    Fuels    Hazard and Risk    Models    Weather
Regions:
California    Rocky Mountain
Keywords:
  • Colorado
  • Extended Kalman Filter
  • fire management
  • fire models
  • fuel management
  • fuel models
  • fuel moisture
  • fuel moisture estimation
  • RAWS - Remote Automated Weather Station
  • southern California
  • statistical analysis
  • wildfires
  • WRF-SFIRE
Tall Timbers Record Number: 31601 • Location Status: Not in file • Call Number: Available • Abstract Status: Fair use, Okay, Reproduced by permission
Record Last Modified:
Record Maintained By: FRAMES Staff (https://www.frames.gov/contact)
FRAMES Record Number: 17723

This bibliographic record was either created or modified by Tall Timbers and is provided without charge to promote research and education in Fire Ecology. The E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database is the intellectual property of Tall Timbers.