Rising global temperatures have increased the frequency and intensity of wildfires worldwide, especially in northern and temperate forests. These extreme fires have sparked significant legal claims affecting agriculture, forestry, tourism, and infrastructure. Accurately understanding wildfire smoke dispersion is vital in legal disputes to identify which fires caused specific impacts and to gauge their effects amid multiple simultaneous wildfires.
An artist’s rendering of NOAA’s GOES-19 satellite in orbit. (NOAA)
To support this type of investigation, Air Sciences Inc.’s Fire Science Team enhanced the CALPUFF long-range transport model (U.S. EPA approved model) with advanced features, including Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) wind fields, the wildfire plume rise algorithm from Sofiev et al. (2012), and NOAA’s high-resolution RAVE PM2.5 emission rates combined with fire radiative power data from GOES-West and NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites. These enhancements enable detailed 3D gridded receptor modeling over subregional domains. Dynamic 3D animations visualize single or multiple wildfire smoke plumes as they move, merge, or diverge with wind patterns, allowing pollutant concentrations to be tracked at ground level and aloft over time. These tools provide precise smoke dispersion tracking and clarify the extent of downrange smoke impacts from one or multiple wildfires, improving smoke impact assessments and wildfire management decisions.
For more details or examples, contact team members Dr. Mark Schaaf, John Bannister, or Tim Martin at Air Sciences Inc., Portland, Oregon.
