M.S. Defense by Jonathan Chriest, Atmospheric Sciences UAF, advised by Dr. Uma Bhatt
Watch the presentation here
Wildfire has long been a part of the Boreal forest ecosystem in Alaska, and large fire seasons over the past 2 decades have had substantial economic and health impacts. Boreal wildfires are projected to continue to increase over the next century in part due to a projected increase in lightning. This motivates developing lightning outlooks to inform fire management decisions. In this study, key meteorological parameters favorable for lightning on short time scales are identified. To identify these key parameters, lightning data was paired with hourly gridded meteorological data from the European Center Reanalysis Version 5 (ERA5) over the 2012–2019 study period.
Please email zav.grabinski@alaska.edu for zoom login link and code