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Wildfire is one of the most significant dangers and the most serious natural catastrophe, endangering forest resources, animal life, and the human economy. Recent years have witnessed a rise in wildfire incidents. The two main factors are persistent human interference with the…
Person:
Year: 2022
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Mapping, Monitoring and Inventory
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, International, National
Keywords: wildfire detection, forest fire, UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles, drone images, YOLOv5, deep learning, CNN - convolution neural network, smoke detection

Satellite remote sensing of aerosol optical depth (AOD) is essential for detection, characterization, and forecasting of wildfire smoke. In this work, we evaluate the AOD (550 nm) retrievals during the extreme wildfire events over the western U.S. in September 2020. Three…
Person:
Year: 2022
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Mapping, Monitoring and Inventory
Region(s): California
Keywords: AOD - aerosol optical depth, MODIS - Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, VIIRS - Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, retrieval, wildfire, MAIAC - Multi‐angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction, AERONET - Aerosol Robotic Network

PurpleAir particulate matter (PM) sensors are increasingly used in the United States and other countries for real-time air quality information, particularly during wildfire smoke episodes. Uncorrected PurpleAir data can be biased and may exhibit a nonlinear response at extreme…
Person:
Year: 2022
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Monitoring and Inventory
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: air sensors, PurpleAir, PM2.5, PM - particulate matter, AQI - Air Quality Index, error correction, evaluation, wildfire

Join project staff and members of the committee for a public release webinar about the new report, The Chemistry of Fires at the Wildland-Urban Interface on Tuesday, September 20th from 3:00PM to 4:00PM EDT. The committee will share information about their findings and…
Person: Allen, Lowry, Adetona, Holder, Rosario-Ortiz, Turpin
Year: 2022
Type: Media
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Fuels, Hazard and Risk, Planning, Safety, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
Region(s): California, Eastern, Great Basin, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest
Keywords: public health, wildfires, fire chemistry, communities at risk, air quality, water quality

Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) are carcinogenic and mutagenic compounds formed by the cooking of meat and combustion of biomass. There are relatively few data on HAAs in atmospheric particulate matter (PM). We developed an analytical method using high performance liquid…
Person:
Year: 2022
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Mapping, Monitoring and Inventory
Region(s): California
Keywords: PM - particulate matter, atmospheric particulate matter, heterocyclic aromatic amines, wildfire, HPLC-MS/MS - high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

We undertake a nationwide US study to estimate how mega-fires (defined as wildfires >100,000 acres in size) affect short-term infant health outcomes in communities located within the flame zone. This is the first study to look exclusively at mega-fires, which have unique…
Person:
Year: 2022
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Safety, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: megafires, mega-fires, indirect effects, health impacts, infant health, flame zone

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of compounds containing multiple aromatic rings formed during incomplete combustion. Since many of them are known mutagens and carcinogens, PAHs found in the particulate matter (PM) from the wildfire smoke may pose significant…
Person:
Year: 2022
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Monitoring and Inventory
Region(s): California
Keywords: wildfire, PAH - polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PM - particulate matter, DART-MS - direct analysis in real-time mass spectrometry, PM2.5, PM10, biomass burning, smoke exposure

To collect partner and employee input on the Wildfire Crisis Strategy 10-year Implementation Plan, the Forest Service and National Forest Foundation hosted a series of roundtable discussions in the winter and spring of 2022. Individual roundtables were focused on each of the…
Person:
Year: 2022
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Aquatic, Climate, Economics, Emissions and Smoke, Fire Behavior, Fire Ecology, Fire Effects, Fire History, Fire Occurrence, Fire Prevention, Fuels, Hazard and Risk, Mapping, Models, Monitoring and Inventory, Outreach, Planning, Prescribed Fire, Regulations and Legislation, Restoration and Rehabilitation, Safety, Social Science, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: climate change, fire-adapted communities, fireshed, forest health, fuel treatment, ignition, land management, National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (Cohesive Strategy), resilience, wildfires, Wildfire Crisis Strategy, trusted communicators, shared stewardship, equity, ITEK - Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Although metal and metalloid concentrations in wildfire ashes have been documented, the nature and concentrations of incidental nanomaterials (INMs) in wildland-urban interface (WUI) fire ashes have received considerably less attention. In this study, the total metal and…
Person:
Year: 2023
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
Region(s): California
Keywords: incidental nanomaterials, ash, fire, North Complex Fire, LNU Lightning Complex Fire, metalloids, metals

Wildfire emissions are a key contributor of carbonaceous aerosols and trace gases to the atmosphere. Induced by buoyant lifting, smoke plumes can be injected into the free troposphere and lower stratosphere, which by consequence significantly affects the magnitude and distance…
Person:
Year: 2022
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Aviation, Emissions and Smoke, Mapping, Models, Monitoring and Inventory
Region(s): California, Great Basin, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southwest
Keywords: biomass burning, inverse modeling, airborne lidar, LiDAR - Light Detection and Ranging, plume rise, WRF-Chem

Major wildfires and heatwaves have begun to increase in frequency throughout much of the United States, particularly in western states such as California, causing increased risk to public health. Air pollution is exacerbated by both wildfires and warmer temperatures, thus adding…
Person:
Year: 2022
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Climate, Emissions and Smoke, Monitoring and Inventory, Safety, Social Science
Region(s): California
Keywords: climate change, PM - particulate matter, PM2.5, heatwaves, air pollution, PurpleAir, compound risk, public health, environmental justice

Wildfires in America are becoming larger, more frequent, and more destructive, driven by climate change and existing land management practices. Many of these fires occur at the wildland-urban interface (WUI), areas where development and wildland areas overlap and which are…
Person:
Year: 2022
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Fuels, Planning, Safety, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, International, National
Keywords:

Climate change impacts and rapid development in the wildland-urban interface are increasing population exposure and vulnerability to the harmful effects of wildfire and wildfire smoke. The direct and indirect effects of these hazards may impact future mobility decisions among…
Person:
Year: 2022
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Climate, Emissions and Smoke, Fire Occurrence, Safety, Social Science, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
Region(s): California
Keywords: climate migration, risk perception, personal experience, wildfire, threat appraisal, migration intentions, mitigation

Deep-learning (DL)-based object detection algorithms can greatly benefit the community at large in fighting fires, advancing climate intelligence, and reducing health complications caused by hazardous smoke particles. Existing DL-based techniques, which are mostly based on…
Person:
Year: 2022
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Mapping, Monitoring and Inventory
Region(s): California, Great Basin, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southwest
Keywords: wildfire, incipient stage, smoke density, detection, deep learning, computer vision, encoder–decoder Transformer, direct set prediction, attention mechanism, benchmarks, Nemo - Nevada Smoke detection benchmark

Increasing fire impacts across North America are associated with climate and vegetation change, greater exposure through development expansion, and less-well studied but salient social vulnerabilities. We are at a critical moment in the contemporary human-fire relationship, with…
Person:
Year: 2022
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Climate, Emissions and Smoke, Hazard and Risk, Planning, Prescribed Fire, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
Region(s): California, Great Basin, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southwest
Keywords: PM - particulate matter, PM2.5, smoke management, resilience, environmental justice, hazard reduction, SETS - social-environmental-technological systems, climate change, wildfires

In this short communication, we estimate that California's wildfire carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions from 2020 are approximately two times higher than California's total greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions since 2003. Without considering future vegetation regrowth…
Person:
Year: 2022
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Economics, Emissions and Smoke, Planning, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
Region(s): California
Keywords: wildfires, greenhouse gas emissions, economic impacts, forest management, CO2 emissions

Wildfire severity is a key indicator of both direct ecosystem impacts and indirect emissions impacts that affect air quality, climate, and public health far beyond the spatial footprint of the flames. Comprehensive, accurate inventories of severity and emissions are essential…
Person:
Year: 2022
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Behavior, Fire Ecology, Fire Effects, Monitoring and Inventory
Region(s): California
Keywords: burn severity, emissions inventory, fire progression maps, GEE - Google Earth Engine, WBSE - Wildfire Burn Severity and Emissions Inventory, dNBR - differenced Normalized Burn Ratio, CBI - composite burn index

In recent years, California experienced the largest, most destructive and deadliest wildfires in its history. Wildfires can cause fatalities and injuries, impair air quality for nearby and distant populations, and devastate the immediate area, leaving communities with often…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Prevention, Prescribed Fire, Safety, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
Region(s): California
Keywords: public health, wildfire, fire mitigation, fire suppression, air quality, water quality, power shutoff, forest management

Purpose of Review: To review the recent literature on the effects of wildfire smoke (WFS) exposure on asthma and allergic disease, and on potential mechanisms of disease. Recent Findings: Spatiotemporal modeling and increased ground-level monitoring data are allowing a more…
Person:
Year: 2023
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Models, Safety, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, International, National
Keywords: wildfire, asthma, allergy, PM - particulate matter, PM2.5, health effects

Wildfire activity in the western United States during August to October 2020 was exceptional in terms of the fire severity and area burned. Extremely dry biomass fuels from near historic multi-year drought conditions were further exacerbated with very hot and dry conditions in…
Person:
Year: 2023
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Occurrence, Mapping, Monitoring and Inventory
Region(s): California, Eastern, Northwest, Southern
Keywords: aerosol, remote sensing, AOD - aerosol optical depth, AERONET - Aerosol Robotic Network, PM2.5, PM - particulate matter, fine mode particulate mass, brown carbon, carbon absorbtion, extreme wildfires

Smoke plumes emitted from wildland-urban interface (WUI) wildfires contain toxic chemical substances that are harmful to human health, mainly due to the burning of synthetic components. Accurate measurement of these air toxics is necessary for understanding their impacts on…
Person:
Year: 2023
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Monitoring and Inventory, Safety, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
Region(s): California
Keywords: UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles, wildfire, smoke plumes, air quality monitoring, low-cost sensor, VOC - volatile organic compounds

Wildfires are increasing in frequency and intensity in part because of changing climate conditions and decades of fire suppression. Though fire is a natural ecological process in many forest ecosystems, extreme wildfires now pose a growing threat to the nation’s natural…
Person:
Year: 2023
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Climate, Economics, Emissions and Smoke, Fire Ecology, Fire Effects, Hazard and Risk, Models, Planning, Prescribed Fire, Restoration and Rehabilitation, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: controlled burn, wildfire resilience, National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (Cohesive Strategy), partnerships, air quality, equity, cross-boundary

As wildfire risks have elevated due to climate change, the health risks that toxicants from fire smoke pose to wildland firefighters have been exacerbated. Recently, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has reclassified wildland firefighters’ occupational…
Person:
Year: 2023
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Prescribed Fire, Safety, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: wildfire, firefighter, multi-pollutant mixtures, occupational health, environmental health, exposure assessment, wildfire management, respiratory protection

The behaviour of wildland fires and the dispersion of smoke from those fires can be strongly influenced by atmospheric turbulent flow. The science to support that assertion has developed and evolved over the past 100+ years, with contributions from laboratory and field…
Person:
Year: 2023
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Behavior, Monitoring and Inventory
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, International, National
Keywords: atmospheric turbulence, measurements, plumes, smoke dispersion, synthesis, vortices, wildland fires, wildfires

Space-borne observations are used to characterize the fate of formaldehyde and glyoxal in wildfire plumes. Their distribution measured by the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument reveals striking differences between the two compounds near intense fires. In typical situations, the…
Person:
Year: 2023
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Monitoring and Inventory
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, International, National
Keywords: glyoxal, atmosphere, wildfires, pyrocumulonimbus, formaldehyde, satellite measurements