Integration of a Coupled Fire-Atmosphere Model Into a Regional Air Quality Forecasting System for Wildfire Events

The objective of this study was to assess feasibility of integrating a coupled fire-atmosphere model within an air-quality forecast system to create a multiscale air-quality modeling framework designed to simulate wildfire smoke. For this study, a coupled fire-atmosphere model, WRF-SFIRE, was integrated, one-way, with the AIRPACT air-quality modeling system. WRF-SFIRE resolved local meteorology, fire growth, the fire plume rise, and smoke dispersion, and provided AIRPACT with fire inputs. The WRF-SFIRE-forecasted fire area and the explicitly resolved vertical smoke distribution replaced the parameterized BlueSky fire inputs used by AIRPACT. The WRF-SFIRE/AIRPACT integrated framework was successfully tested for two separate wildfire events (2015 Cougar Creek and 2016 Pioneer fires). The execution time for the WRF-SFIRE simulations was \u3c3 h for a 48 h-long forecast, suggesting that integrating coupled fire-atmosphere simulations within the daily AIRPACT cycle is feasible. While the WRF-SFIRE forecasts realistically captured fire growth 2 days in advance, the largest improvements in the air quality simulations were associated with the wildfire plume rise. WRF-SFIRE-estimated plume tops were within 300-m of satellite-estimated plume top heights for both case studies analyzed in this study. Air quality simulations produced by AIRPACT with and without WRF-SFIRE inputs were evaluated with nearby PM2.5 measurement sites to assess the performance of our multiscale smoke modeling framework. The largest improvements when coupling WRF-SFIRE with AIRPACT were observed for the Cougar Creek Fire where model errors were reduced by ∼50%. For the second case (Pioneer fire), the most notable change with WRF-SFIRE coupling was that the probability of detection increased from 16 to 52%

USING NASA EARTH OBSERVING SATELLITES WITH THE AIRPACT AIR QUALITY FORECAST SYSTEM

The Air Indicator Report for Public Awareness and Community Tracking (AIRPACT) air quality model simulates EPA criteria pollutants and their precursors, providing quantitative descriptions of regional air quality in the Pacific Northwest. This study focuses on comparing AIRPACT simulations to satellite-based retrievals of atmospheric pollutants made by select instruments flying in NASA's Earth Observing System. Products from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), Atmospheric Infra-Red Sounder (AIRS), Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) are used in an effort to validate AIRPACT and serve as a basis to implement near-real time satellite resources for AIRPACT users in the future. Focus is given to satellite-derived nitrogen dioxide, aerosol subtypes, aerosol optical depth, and carbon monoxide. The horizontal and vertical distribution of pollutants in the AIRPACT is shown to be quite reasonable, but signs of overestimation of wildfire emissions are observed. The broader impacts of using engineering sciences on culturally relevant education is also discussed