Name: Sachin Tandukar

Class: Severe and Hazardous Weather

Professor: Derek Mallia
FIRE IN THE EARTH SYSTEM
DAVID M. J. S. BOWMAN
Fireisknownasthelightandheatandespeciallytheflameproduced
byburning.Thecostoffirehavehigheconomiccostrates.For
example;TheSoutheastAsiastropicalforestsrelatedtothe1997
1998ElNioSouthernOscillation(ENSO)event.Thereforethecost
ofeconomiccostswasabout$U.S8.8to9.3billion,ofwhicha
conservativeestimateof$U.S.1billionwasformadverseeffectsof
smokehaze.Thisisbecauseoflackofknowledgeaboutfires
fundamentalroleinEarthsystemprocesses,aswellasaninsufficient
appreciationoffiresinteractionwithanthropogenicglobal
environmentalchange.
Earthisanintrinsicallyflammableplanetowingtoitscoverof
carbonrichvegetation,seasonallydryclimates,atmosphericoxygen,
andwidespreadlightningandvolcanoignitionsnotonlythatbutit
startedtheroutinedomesticuseoffirebeganaround50,000to
100,000yearsagowhichhavehighinfluencedtheevolutionof
humantolerancetoairpollution.Humansandclimatebothplaya
roledeterminingfirepatterns,fireinfluences.Between1997and200,
biomassburningaccountedforabouttwothirdsofthevariabilityin
theCO2growthrate(34,43).Firecanalsochangetheclimateby
atmosphericaerosolsandchangingsurfacealbedo.Thebiomass
burningemissionsconsistofblackcarbonaerosolsthathavestrong
solarradiationabsorptionproperties.

LARGE WILDFIRE TRENDS IN THE WESTERN

UNITED STATES, 1984-2011
According to the researcher we found increase in the
number of fires or total large fire area per year. There
was a large wire increased at a rate of seven fires per
year, while total area fire increased at a rate of 355km2
per year in the western United States. The historical
trends in fire activity is challenging , due to lack of
complete and consistently derived data sets, regional
variations in fire regimes and statistical limitations
associated with the temporal extent of instrumental
records. MTBS they use satellite remote sensing data
to map burn area boundaries in the U.S. Thisprojecthas
thegoalofmappingallfireslargerthan405hectares(1000acres)in
thecontinentalU.S.westof97longitude.Theywereusedtocapture
areasofsimilarclimatevariabilityandvegetationtypes.
AllfireslabeledbyMTBSasprescribedwereexcludedfromthe
analysis,andburnareaboundarieswererequiredtohaveahigh
confidencelevelasdescribedintheMTBSmetadata.Atotalof6876
largefirescatalogedbyMTBSduringthe19842011studyperiod
wereexamined.
Ecoregionswithincreasingtrendsinthenumberoflargefiresand
totalfireareaalsodisplayedincreasingtrendsindroughtseverity.
Duetodifferentinteractinginfluencesonfireregimesacrossthe
westernU.S.,thestudyprovesthatcaremustbeexercisedindirectly
attributingincreasesinfireactivitytoanthropogenicclimatechange.
Although

FIRE ACTIVITY TRENDS FOR WESTERN U.S.

ECOREGIONS

In this above picture

A: It shows the slope in number of large fire per
year
B: Slope in total fire area per year
C: Slope in 90th percentile large fire size per year
D: Slopein10thpercentiledayofyear(DOY)peryear.
Significance(p)ofslopesassessedusingtheMannKendalltest
isshownasaredbar(p<0.10),oneasterisk(0.01<p<0.05),
andtwoasterisks(p<0.01).
(CopiedfromthearticleDennison)
WARMINGANDEARLIERSPRINGINCREASEWESTERN

U.S.FORESTWILDFIREACTIVITY
Western United States forest wildfire activity show
that large wildfire activity increased suddenly and
markedly in the mid-1980s, with higher largewildfire frequency, longer wildfire durations and
longer wildfire seasons.Hundred of homes are
burned annually by wildfires, and damages to
natural resources are sometimes extreme. Due to
the increase in fire activity there was widespread
public attention. They had a discussions within the
fire management and scientific communities and
the media seek to these phenomena as change on
climate

A:Annualfrequencyoflarge(9400ha)westernU.S.forest
wildfires(bars)andmeanMarchthroughAugusttemperature

forthewesternUnitedStates(line)(26,30).Spearmansrank
correlationbetweenthetwoseriesis0.76(PG0.001).Wilcoxon
testforchangeinmeanlargeforestfirefrequencyafter1987
wassignificant(W042;PG0.001).
B:Firstprinciplecomponentofcentertimingofstreamflowin
snowmeltdominatedstreams(line).Low(pinkshading),middle
(noshading),andhigh(lightblueshading)tercilevalues
indicateearly,mid,andlatetimingofspringsnowmelt,
respectively.
C:Annualtimebetweenfirstandlastlargefireignitionandlast
largefirecontrol.

IMPACTS OF UPWIND WILDFIRE EMISSIONS

ON
SALT LAKE CITY
The western U.S. is the primary source of wildfire
emissions in the U.S. due to the abundance of
needleleaf forests and dry seasons. The biggest
wildfire occur during the month of june and
October, with maximum emissions occurring in
august. This topic is mostly focused on wildfires in
the western United States and their impacts on CO,
CO2, and PM2.5 concentrations in Salt Lake City, in
the state of Utah. The effect of CO, CO2 and PM2.5
is very high in the city like salt lake because of the
strong surface inversions that are influenced by the
surrounded topography.

TheWRFdomainusedforthisstudywithsurfaceandupperair
observationsusedforourWRFruncomparisons.Thehorizontal
gridspacingis12kmforD01,4kmforD02,and1.333kmfor
D03.
1. WRFSTILTModelConfiguration
2. WildfireEmissions
3. AnthropogenicEmissions
4. BiosphericFluxes
5. BackgroundCOandCO2concentrations
6. ChemicalabdDepositionalLosses
7. Observationsnetwork
SaltLakeCityandotherurbancentersacrossthewesternU.S.
willcontinuetobeinahigherriskofwildfireseveninthe
comingyears.Allthepreviousstudieshaveshownasteady
increaseinwildfirefrequencyandintensitythatisexpectedto
continueasvirtuallyallclimatemodelprojectionsindicatethat
warmerspringswillcontinuetopromotelongerwildfireseasons
duetoearliersnowmelt.Theincreasedfrequencyandintensity

ofwesternU.S.wildfireswillonlyincreasethevulnerabilityof
thepopulationinthisregiontopollutantssuchasO3andPM2.5
fromwildfires.