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The impact of wildland fire smoke on air quality and health is an issue growing in importance to many health officials across the country, as well as federal, state and local decision-makers. This webinar gives an overview of EPA’s tools and resources available to provide public…
Person: Long
Year: 2019
Type: Media
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Mapping, Models, Safety
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: air quality, PM2.5, PM - particulate matter, public health, wildland fire, wildfire, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency, mitigation, air pollution, health risk

The literature-spanning several recent decades-describes numerous attempts to characterize the efficacy of cumulonimbus 'Cb' convection as a pollutant pathway connecting the planetary BL to the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). The relatively new discovery of…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, International, National
Keywords: aerosols, convection, cloud, cumulonimbus

A novel approach is presented to analyze smoke exposure and provide a metric to quantify health-related impacts. Our results support the current understanding that managing low-intensity fire for ecological benefit reduces exposure when compared to a high-intensity full…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Fire Prevention, Prescribed Fire
Region(s): California
Keywords: forest fires, air quality, exposure assessment, remote sensing, fire management, smoke exposure, fire suppression, health

Climate influences vegetation directly and through climate-mediated disturbance processes, such as wildfire. Temperature and area burned are positively associated, conditional on availability of vegetation to burn. Fire is a self-limiting process that is influenced by…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Climate, Emissions and Smoke, Fire Ecology, Fire Effects, Fuels, Models
Region(s): California
Keywords: Sierra Nevada, climate change, wildfires, climatic factors, vegetation-fire feedbacks, area burned, CO2 - carbon dioxide, PM - particulate matter, fuel availability, fuel flammability

The Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) and the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) initiated the Fire and Smoke Model Experiment (FASMEE) (https://sites.google.com/firenet.gov/fasmee/) by funding Project 15-S-01-01 to identify and collect a set of…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Behavior, Fire Effects, Fuels, Models, Planning, Prescribed Fire, Weather
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: FASMEE - Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment, project management, large fire, experiments, fuel consumption, smoke modeling, fire modeling, energy release, plume rise, smoke transport, smoke dispersion, chemistry

It is a well‐known fact that sometimes a halo display heralds an approaching cyclone, but could a halo display be an indicator of the presence of wildfire smoke and poor air quality? This article presents a few examples of unusual solar halos that formed over altocumulus clouds…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects
Region(s): California
Keywords: air quality, atmosphere

We investigate the air quality impact of record‐breaking wildfires in Southern California during December 5-18, 2017 using the Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry (WRF‐Chem) in combination with satellite and surface observations. This wildfire event was driven…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Models
Region(s): California
Keywords: air quality, WRF-Chem, WRF - Weather Research and Forecasting, PM2.5, PM - particulate matter, VIIRS - Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, AOD - aerosol optical depth

Wildfire is an essential earth‐system process, impacting ecosystem processes and the carbon cycle. Forest fires are becoming more frequent and severe, yet gaps exist in the modeling of fire on vegetation and carbon dynamics. Strategies for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Climate, Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Fuels, Models
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, International, National
Keywords: C - carbon, climate change mitigation, forests, greenhouse gas emissions, tree biomass, biomass consumption, biomass combustion factors

Epidemiological studies consistently show an association between wildfire-related smoke exposure and adverse respiratory health. We conducted a systematic review of evidence in published literature pertaining to heterogeneity of respiratory effects from this exposure in North…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Safety
Region(s): California, Eastern, Great Basin, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest
Keywords: wildfires, respiratory health, heterogeneity, ratio of relative risk, public health

Forest ecosystems sequester approximately 12% of anthropogenic carbon emissions, and efforts to increase forest carbon uptake are central to climate change mitigation policy. Managing forests to store carbon has focused on increasing forested area, decreasing area lost to…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Climate, Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: carbon emissions, climate change, forest carbon, forest management, carbon management

Most of the previous investigations on the relationship between PM2.5 chemical characteristics and wildfire focused on the predictions of particle components concentrations or future pollution scenarios. Little research has focused on trends analyses based on large temporal…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Models, Weather
Region(s): California, Great Basin, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southwest
Keywords: Generalized Additive Models, air pollution, wildfires, PM2.5, speciation, particulate carbon

Smoke aerosols released from biomass burning greatly influence air quality, weather, and climate. The total particulate matter (TPM) of smoke aerosols has been demonstrated to be a linear function of fire radiative energy (FRE) during a period of biomass burning via a smoke…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Climate, Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Weather
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: Indonesia, emission coefficient, MODIS - Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, FRE - Fire Radiative Energy, smoke aerosols, PM - particulate matter, air quality, MODIS active fires

Smoke from human-induced fires such as prescribed fires can occasionally cause significant reduction in visibility on highways in the southern United States. Visibility reduction to less than three meters has been termed 'superfog' and environmental conditions that lead to its…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Models, Prescribed Fire
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: superfog, visibility, liquid water content, CCN - cloud condensation nuclei

Wildland firefighters are exposed to wood smoke, which contains hazardous air pollutants, by suppressing thousands of wildfires across the U. S. each year. We estimated the relative risk of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease mortality from existing PM2.5 exposure-response…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Fire Prevention, Hazard and Risk, Safety
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: wildland fire, firefighters, PM - particulate matter, risk assessment, cardiovascular disease, lung diseases, firefighter health, smoke exposure

Seasonal-mean concentrations of particulate matter with diameters smaller than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) have been decreasing across the United States (US) for several decades, with large reductions in spring and summer in the eastern US. In contrast, summertime-mean PM2.5 in the western…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Models
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: PM - particulate matter, PM2.5, fire frequency, area burned, smoke plumes, GEOS-Chem, GEOS-Chem CTM

Biomass burning (BB) is a major source of black carbon (BC), but comparing BC content of different smoke-impacted air masses may be uncertain if different measurement techniques are used to quantify the BC, or if non-BC fractions influence a given measurement. To investigate…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Fuels
Region(s): California, Great Basin, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southwest
Keywords: biomass burning, black carbon, aerosols, emission factors

Wildland firefighters are exposed to wood smoke, which contains hazardous air pollutants, during wildland fire management assignments across the U.S. each year. In this webinar, Kathleen Navarro, PhD, will present on a recent Joint Fire Science Program study estimating the…
Person: Navarro, Martinez
Year: 2019
Type: Media
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Fire Prevention, Hazard and Risk
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: human health, health impacts, PM2.5, PM - particulate matter, PAH - polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, firefighters, firefighter exposure

A series of small-scale laboratory fires were conducted to study the relationship between fuel type, moisture content, energy released and emissions during the combustion process of live wildland fuels. The experimental design sought to understand the effects that varying…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Fuels
Region(s): California, Eastern
Keywords: FRE - Fire Radiative Energy, moisture content, remote sensing, pyrophytic, laboratory fires, fuel type, FRP - Fire Radiative Power, PM2.5, PM - particulate matter

The impact of smoke on human health is a factor that is taken into account when forest managers are planning prescribed burns. David Weise, a research forester with the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station, explains how research seeks to improve the ability for…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Media
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Planning, Prescribed Fire, Weather
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: human health, Clean Air Act, air quality

Fire is a ubiquitous natural disturbance that affects 3–4% of the Earth's surface each year. It is a tool used by humans for land clearing and burning of agricultural wastes. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) do not explicitly mention fire, though many of…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, International, National
Keywords: ecosystem services, desertification, soil, transdisciplinary collaboration

Wildfire smoke presents a growing threat in the Western U.S.; and human health, transportation, and economic systems in growing western communities suffer due to increasingly severe and widespread fires. While modelling wildfire activity and associated wildfire smoke…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Social Science
Region(s): California, Great Basin, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southwest
Keywords: public survey, public health, public response, questionnaire, online survey

Wildland fire characteristics, such as area burned, number of large fires, burn intensity, and fire season duration, have increased steadily over the past 30 years, resulting in substantial increases in the costs of suppressing fires and managing damages from wildland fire…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Aquatic, Emissions and Smoke, Fire Ecology, Fire Effects, Fire History, Fire Occurrence, Fuels, Hazard and Risk, Restoration and Rehabilitation
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: area burned, fire season, fire intensity

Wildfire smoke is typically a mixture of water vapor, gases, fine particles, and trace minerals from burning fuels like trees and vegetation, other organic components, and, sometimes, building materials.
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Fire Prevention, Fuels, Prescribed Fire
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: air quality, PM - particulate matter, PM2.5, PM10, smoke exposure, public health

Background: Asthma-related outcomes are regularly used by studies to investigate the association between human exposure to landscape fire smoke and health. Robust summary effect estimates are required to inform health protection policy for fire smoke exposure. Objective: To…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Safety
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, International, National
Keywords: meta-analysis, fine particulate matter, asthma, hospitalizations, PM2.5, public health, literature review

In 1998, the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) was statutorily authorized as a joint partnership between the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. The program provides leadership to the wildland fire science community by…
Person:
Year: 2019
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Behavior, Fire Ecology, Fire Effects, Fire History, Fire Prevention, Fuels, Intelligence, Safety
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: JFSP - Joint Fire Science Program, fire research, fire regimes, firefighter safety, fire science delivery