Projects
Field Projects
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last modified
Jul 16, 2009 03:45 PM
The AirFire Team of the PWFSL has been and is involved in many field projects with a variety of goals and cooperators (federal, state and other). During the recent past, the projects have included short term rapid response and deployment of weather and particulate measuring stations for both wildfire and prescribed burns, as well as longer term sampling of duff moisture and related weather parameters at a variety of remote locations. Links to field projects and associated data are given below.
Predicting Prescribed and Wildland Fire Smoke, Emissions, and Fire Characteristics in Deep Organic Soils
- The management of prescribed and wildland fire on federal, state, and private lands with deep organic soils pose critical challenges for ecosystem management, smoke dispersion, and the protection of private property and human life. We are characterizing fuel and fire effects in representative sites with deep organic soils in Virginia and North Carolina. The project objectives are to: (1) Determine the relationships between meteorology, soil characteristics, litter/duff moisture, micro-topography, and fire behavior in the ignition, flaming, smoldering, and extinction combustion stages; (2) Quantify pre- and post-burn below- and above-ground biomass to determine fuel characteristics and consumption for fine and coarse woody material, shrub, herbs, litter, and duff; (3) Characterize photochemically/radiatively important trace gases during combustion stages of prescribed and wildland fires; and (4) Provide land mangers with decision support tools for managing prescribed and wildland fire and assessing ground fire risk on deep organic soils.
