Fire Science Applications
a paragraph overview?
OUR RESEARCH SCIENTISTS
Scott Pokswinski
Director of Fire Science Applications
Rod Linn, PhD
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Anthony Marcozzi
Lucas Wells, PhD
Niko Tutland
Niko Tutland
Natasha Torres Rios
Matt Snider
Alex Masarie, PhD
CURRENT PROJECTS
NSF Convergence Accelerator – Track D: Artificial Intelligence and Community Driven Wildland Fire Innovation via a WIFIRE Commons Infrastructure for Data and Model Sharing
WIFIRE Commons will integrate three existing technologies, WIFIRE, MINT and QUIC-Fire as part of this Phase 1 Project to show the promise of using AI to enhance a comprehensive data framework to run next generation coupled-fire-atmospheric modeling for fire planning, risk management, and ecosystem resilience. Through QUIC’s plume tracking function, smoke transport can be assessed as a function of ignition patterns and injection heights accurately modeled for hand off to long distance dispersion transport. WIFIRE Commons will use QUIC-Fire and FIRETEC as the main drivers of the AI Innovations to demonstrate the use of high-fidelity data. Utilizing computational fluid dynamics models that integrate fire-atmospheric interactions with spatially explicit fuels, NMC research staff support various projects aimed at improving fire modeling. This project supports fire modeling efforts ranging from validation and innovation to implementation of new models into current fire management scenarios. Innovative fire models will improve our understanding of post-wildfire evaluations and improve prescribed fire planning and provide fire managers with decision support tools.
Project leads: Rod Linn (LANL); Scott Pokswinski
Other NMC Scientists: Alex Masarie
Funding Agency:
Partner(s): US Geological Survey, US Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Forest Service, Department of Defense
Building capacity for next generation fuel and fire management, training and science delivery
The goal of this project is to provide support for the continuing development of fuel and fire modeling tools for the integration of next generation prescribed fire support tools. In recent years, next generation fire behavior models such as FIRETEC and QUIC-Fire have been developed at Los Alamos National Lab, a critical partner in the New Mexico Consortium (NMC, INC.). These models enable detailed 3D fire modeling which captures the complex interactions between fuels, fire, and the atmosphere. Combining these models with a detailed 3D fuel modeling system currently in development by the USFS and partners, called FastFuels, provides a simulation modeling basis enabling robust scientific exploration of fuel treatments, prescribed fire, and numerous other factors that influence fire behavior and effects. The capabilities of these advanced models offer many improvements to current understanding and open doors to better solutions to a range of issues. Collaborative work in these themes will thus be of significant benefit to the USFS and to the fire management community.
Project lead: Scott Pokswinski
Other NMC Scientists: Anthony Marcozzi; Daithi Martin
Funding Agency:
Partner(s): USDA Forest Service, Northern Research station
Next-generation fire spread modeling to inform the management of climate- and fire-driven ecological transformations in the Rio Grande Basin (CASC)
The objective is to use 3-d, field-derived, fuel models and next-generation fire models to understanding the range of current and potential future fire behaviors across a range of changing ecological conditions to increase the scale and efficacy of managed fire
Project leads: Rod Linn (LANL); Scott Pokswinski
Other NMC Scientists: Alex Masarie; Niko Tutland
Funding Agency:
A Multiscale Study of the Coupling Between Flow, Fire and Vegetation – Influence of Vegetation Distribution and Flow on Fire Behavior and Plume Development for Risk Mitigation in Prescribed Burns
The goal of this project is to logistically support and collect non-fire data for a set of field ongoing experiments to support plume measurement campaigns under a forest canopy.
Project lead: Scott Pokswinski
Other NMC Scientists: Alex Masarie; Niko Tutland
Partners: Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Los Alamos National Lab, USDA Forest Service
Validation of QUIC-Fire smoke plume dispersion modeling for complex wildland fires
Smoke impacts on the public (communities, highways, airports) and on DoD missions is a significant constraint on DoD prescribed fire operations and the magnitude of this constraint continues to increase as urban encroachment on DoD lands increases. This project is to demonstrate and enhance the wildland fire plume development and smoke dispersion capabilities of the new operational-speed coupled fire/atmosphere model, QUIC-Fire. This project will demonstrate and validate QUIC-Fire’s ability to capture the influences of ignition patterns (i.e., fire geometry) on plume-core development and downwind dispersion under a range of realistic wind conditions through improved representation of near-field weather conditions, fire/atmosphere coupling, and plume organization and teach the tools to prescribed fire managers.
Project lead: Rod Linn; Scott Pokswinski
Other NMC Scientists: Sara Brambilla (LANL); Alex Fetterhoff
Partners: Los Alamos National Lab
PUBLICATIONS
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PRESENTATIONS
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The New Mexico Consortium (NMC) is a non-profit corporation formed by three New Mexico universities in order to facilitate research in the state of New Mexico, and specifically to increase research collaborations between universities, industry and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).