The Mysterious Science of Fire (VIDEO)

Check out this beautifully put-together new short documentary on the many mysteries of fire, highlighting the Missoula Fire Lab's work in Montana. Definitely worth 10 minutes of your day!

From the Source: 

"Massive wildfires cost billions of dollars and burn millions of acres in the U.S. every year, but we know surprisingly little about the basic science of how they spread. At the Fire Lab in Missoula, Montana, researchers reverse-engineer spreading fires using wind tunnels, fire-whirl generators, and giant combustion chambers. They're finding that fire is a mysterious phenomenon, and the physics behind it is often counterintuitive." 

Above: Screen capture from The Atlantic video.

Ahead of Wildfire Season, Scientists Study What Fuels Fire (AUDIO)

A great example of science that meets management needs, which happens to be the state mission for the Pacific Fire Exchange.

From the Source: 

"As fire managers in the drought-stricken Southwest gear up for another long and expensive wildfire season, federal fire scientists are trying to better understand the physics behind what makes blazes spread.
At a U.S. Forest Service fire lab in Riverside, Calif., a team of scientists is conducting daily experiments over the next few months on different fire behavior conditions. They hope to hand off their findings to fire managers, who have to make the quick decisions on where to deploy resources that could protect lives and property.

The centerpiece of the lab is a 30-foot-long, 10-foot-high wind tunnel and inside is a layer of wood shavings meant to mimic a dry, forest floor. Above them, resting on a shelf, are freshly picked green shrubs, the live green trees in this soon-to-be simulated forest fire...

After all, these are the plants that blanket the chaparral hills of Southern California and Arizona, notorious for fueling some spectacular wildfires. But what Weise wants to know are the precise conditions that turned this small blaze into a potentially large one; one that would be almost impossible to control in the field...

'What we're trying to do here is conduct these experiments so that we can produce models, which can be used to perhaps predict what might happen under conditions that might be outside of a manager's experience,' Weise says.

Weise says that with improved models of fire behavior, that fire manager will have a better idea where to put resources to get out in front of the fire. His team plans to conduct these daily experiments under all types of different wind speeds, humidity and types of fuel for a couple more months...

There is a sense of urgency with research like this. It turns out that most of the fire behavior models commonly in practice today are based on research conducted 40 years ago. And there's no indication that wildfires are going to get any less severe anytime soon."

Above: "A lab technician lighting a fire in a wind tunnel at a fire lab in Riverside, Calif." Credit: Sean Nealon/University of California, Riverside

Wildfires in West Increasing Burn Areas at Nearly One Denver Per Year, Study Finds

From the Source: 

"Just as wildfire season is getting off to a heated start, a new study has found that in the last 30 years in the western United States, both the number of fires and the area that they burn have increased. The study, published by the American Geophysical Union, looked at the 17-state region stretching from Nebraska to California. It found that wildfires over 1,000 acres in size increased by about seven fires a year from 1984 to 2011. It also found that the amount of area these fires burned increased each year at about 140 square miles, or 90,000 acres, per year — an area about the size of Las Vegas and nearly the size of Denver.

The researchers assert that these trends are likely due to climate change and associated shifts in rain patterns and temperature norms, rather than local factors. The study does not directly link the findings to human-caused climate change, but it says the observations fit well with the predictions of climate models for the region.

“We looked at the probability that increases of this magnitude could be random, and in each case it was less than one percent,” Philip Dennison, an associate professor of geography at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and lead author of the paper, said in a statement.

This is the first study to utilize high-resolution satellite data to look at wildfire trends across a variety of landscapes and ecoregions, according to the researchers. They used nine ecoregions, including forested mountains, deserts, and grasslands, and found that the rise in fire activity was strongest in areas like the Rocky Mountains, the southwest desert, and the southern plains in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. According to Dennison, these are the same regions that would be expected to experience more fire activity due to climate change."

Above: Courtesy of AP/Jae C. Hong

Devastating Australian Brushfires as Seen from Space

From the Source:

"Bushfires are continuing to rage across parts of Australia’s state of Victoria today despite the arrival of milder conditions.

You can see them in the image [on the left] from NASA’s Aqua satellite. Massive plumes of smoke stream from fires burning in the eastern part of the state, as well as just north of the city of Melbourne. Red dots mark spots where the satellite sensor detected fire...

The region has been experiencing hot and windy conditions that have raised the fire risk in Victoria to its highest level since 2009, when fires killed 173 people."

Above: "NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this view of bushfires blazing in the Australian state of Victoria today. (Source: NASA)" - Discover

Technology Tracks Crew Through the Fog of Wildfire (AUDIO)

From the Source:

"For crews fighting wildfires, the ability to get accurate information quickly is crucial. A breakdown in communication was one factor in a fire that killed 19 firefighters in Arizona last year, and in the deaths of two Florida firefighters in Arizona in 2011.

Florida officials hope to address some of those communication problems with a new tracking system designed to keep tabs on crews in the field.

The accident helped spur state officials to roll out an "asset tracking system" on Florida's bulldozers, trucks and other vehicles used to fight fires. The system uses radio tracking to follow the equipment, and a computer program then overlays the information onto satellite imagery, says Jim Karels, director of the Florida Forest Service..."

"'When everything is happening ... a lot of times the firefighters try very hard to keep their communications very short because they know the radio traffic is heavy,' he adds. 'And sometimes by doing that they miss the opportunities to thoroughly communicate what they need to.'

The tracking system, on the other hand, can transmit important information in real time, without the need for voice communication."

Above: "Crews work a controlled burn in Geneva, Fla., in December. The state's forest service has rolled out a system to track equipment during fires, and hopes it can eventually be used to pinpoint firefighters, too." - NPR

Wildfire Science Returns to Rim Fire

From the Source:

"Although dousing the flames was foremost in people's minds during the recent Rim Fire in Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park, U.S. Geological Survey scientific work continues well after the fire is out. USGS scientists are continuing their critical research characterizing the hidden dangers faced after large wildfires.

While the fire was still smoldering in September, the multi-agency BAER (Burned Area Emergency Response) team developed a burn-severity map and shared it with USGS scientists. USGS assessed the potential for debris flows that tend to occur when the winter rains soak the steep slopes following fires by adding critical information on soil characteristics, the ruggedness of the terrain, and the typical amount of rainfall in that area in order to model the likelihood and possible volumes of debris flows. The just published Rim Fire debris-flow hazards assessment map, will help land and emergency managers focus mitigation treatments on where the greatest damage might be done by post-fire debris flows."

Above: "A recent image from the Landsat 8 satellite in the vicinity of Yosemite National Park, California, during the Rim Fire (August 31). Started on August 17, the Rim Fire had burned over 219,000 acres by August 31 (an area nearly 15 times the size of Manhattan Island). Image is false-colored using bands 6, 5, 4 to allow identification of critical vegetation and fuels information that will help firefighters and emergency managers. In the image fire appears bright red, vegetation is green, smoke is blue, clouds are white, and bare ground is tan-colored."

Researchers Design Satellite to Detect Wildfires - A Step Toward the Holy Grail of Firefighter Safety?

This new satellite technology will change the game for firefighting: 

From the Source: 

"This proposed satellite, called FUEGO – Fire Urgency Estimator in Geosynchronous Orbit, would survey the entire western United States every two minutes or less and could detect a fire that is about 10 feet in diameter. Assuming that the data from the satellite could be transmitted to the appropriate dispatch center within a minute or two, this could be a major step toward keeping fires small… IF the fire agencies have the appropriate initial attack policies in place and an adequate number of firefighting resources, both ground and air-based, to respond and arrive at the fire within the first 10 to 30 minutes."

Above: "Artist’s concept for FUEGO on orbit (FUEGO Concept Art by R. E. Lafever, LBNL)"

Into the Wildfire: What Science is Learning About Fire and How to Live With It

Incredible article put out by the New York Times putting fire science in a publicly-accessible format and stunning pictures and moving graphics. A must read!

From the Source:

"By suppressing fires ... we’re saving the landscape for the worst conditions,’ a fire researcher says. ‘We need to choose good fire over bad fire, and if we understand spread we can make better choices."

"Fire has always been a part of the natural ecology — many plant species evolved in direct response to it and couldn’t survive without it; when the sap of some pine cones melts, for example, seeds are released. But the reflexive practice of putting out all fires, which has dominated national policy for so many decades, has turned much of the American West into a tinderbox."

Above: "Scientists at the Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula observe the behavior of fire in a wind tunnel."

Eye on the Mountain

From the Source:

“The Nature Conservancy, in cooperation with the National Park Service, has installed an unblinking eye high on the mountain. The new “fire cam” covers a broad sweep of terrain, from the Ka‘ū forest in the south to Macandless Ranch further north, much of it above the cloud line in a region often not visible from lower elevations.”