The primary negative impact from prescribed fires to human populations are the respiratory and visual smoke hazards when it is transported in sufficient quantities and compositions. Therefore, smoke management is paramount to prescribed burners. Concerns related to the smoke management from prescribed burns include failure of empirical wildfire models to predict fire behavior from environmental and fuel parameters and near-field smoke production based on plume-atmosphere interactions. Reliable emission measurements near the fire source which are coupled to an accurate description of wildfire behaviour are key factors in applying process-based smoke prediction models, by defining relevant near-field source terms to be applied at the sub-grid scale level. This project will produce source terms (emission factors and production rates) for modelers from near-field observations.
Project timeline: 09/2024 – 09/2027