Fire behavior and smoke modeling: Model improvement and measurement needs for next-generation smoke research and forecasting systems.

There is an urgent need for next-generation smoke research and forecasting (SRF) systems to meet the challenges of the growing air quality, health, and safety concerns associated with wildland fire emissions. This review paper presents simulations and experiments of hypothetical prescribed burns with a suite of selected fire behavior and smoke models and identifies major issues for model improvement and the most critical observational needs. The results are used to understand the new and improved capability required for the next-generation SRF systems and to support the design of the Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE) and other field campaigns. The next-generation SRF systems should have more coupling of fire, smoke, and atmospheric processes to better simulate and forecast vertical smoke distributions and multiple sub-plumes, dynamical and high-resolution fire processes, and local and regional smoke chemistry during day and night. The development of the coupling capability requires comprehensive and spatially and temporally integrated measurements across the various disciplines to characterize flame and energy structure (e.g., individual cells, vertical heat profile and the height of well mixing flaming gases), smoke structure (vertical distributions and multiple sub-plumes), ambient air processes (smoke eddy, entrainment and radiative effects of smoke aerosols), fire emissions (for different fuel types and combustion conditions from flaming to residual smoldering), as well as night-time processes (smoke drainage and super-fog formation).

Personal PM(2.5) exposure among wildland firefighters working at prescribed forest burns in Southeastern United States.

This study investigated occupational exposure to wood and vegetative smoke in a group of 28 forest firefighters at prescribed forest burns in a southeastern U.S. forest during the winters of 2003-2005. During burn activities, 203 individual person-day PM(2.5) and 149 individual person-day CO samples were collected; during non-burn activities, 37 person-day PM(2.5) samples were collected as controls. Time-activity diaries and post-work shift questionnaires were administered to identify factors influencing smoke exposure and to determine how accurately the firefighters' qualitative assessment estimated their personal level of smoke exposure with discrete responses: "none" or "very little," "low," "moderate," "high," and "very high." An average of 6.7 firefighters were monitored per burn, with samples collected on 30 burn days and 7 non-burn days. Size of burn plots ranged from 1-2745 acres (avg = 687.8). Duration of work shift ranged from 6.8-19.4 hr (avg = 10.3 hr) on burn days. Concentration of PM(2.5) ranged from 5.9-2673 µg/m(3) on burn days. Geometric mean PM(2.5) exposure was 280 µg/m(3) (95% CL = 140, 557 µg/m(3), n = 177) for burn day samples, and 16 µg/m(3) (95% CL = 10, 26 µg/m(3), n = 35) on non-burn days. Average measured PM(2.5) differed across levels of the firefighters' categorical self-assessments of exposure (p < 0.0001): none to very little = 120 µg/m(3) (95% CL = 71, 203 µg/m(3)) and high to very high = 664 µg/m(3) (95% CL = 373, 1185 µg/m(3)); p < 0.0001 on burn days). Time-weighted average PM(2.5) and personal CO averaged over the run times of PM(2.5) pumps were correlated (correlation coefficient estimate, r = 0.79; CLs: 0.72, 0.85). Overall occupational exposures to particulate matter were low, but results indicate that exposure could exceed the ACGIH®-recommended threshold limit value of 3 mg/m(3) for respirable particulate matter in a few extreme situations. Self-assessed exposure levels agreed with measured concentrations of PM(2.5). Correlation analysis shows that either PM(2.5) or CO could be used as a surrogate measure of exposure to woodsmoke at prescribed burns.

Real-time and time-integrated PM2.5 and CO from prescribed burns in chipped and non-chipped plots: firefighter and community exposure and health implications.

In this study, smoke data were collected from two plots located on the Francis Marion National Forest in South Carolina during prescribed burns on 12 February 2003. One of the plots had been subjected to mechanical chipping, the other was not. This study is part of a larger investigation of fire behavior related to mechanical chipping, parts of which are presented elsewhere. The primary objective of the study reported herein was to measure PM(2.5) and CO exposures from prescribed burn smoke from a mechanically chipped vs. non-chipped site. Ground-level time-integrated PM(2.5) samplers (n=9/plot) were placed at a height of 1.5 m around the sampling plots on the downwind side separated by approximately 20 m. Elevated time-integrated PM(2.5) samplers (n=4/plot) were hung atop approximately 30 ft poles at positions within the interior of each of the plots. Real-time PM(2.5) and CO data were collected at downwind locations on the perimeter of each plot. Time-integrated perimeter 12-h PM(2.5) concentrations in the non-chipped plot (AVG 519.9 microg/m(3), SD 238.8 microg/m(3)) were significantly higher (1-tail P-value 0.01) than those at the chipped plot (AVG 198.1 microg/m(3), SD 71.6 microg/m(3)). Similarly, interior time-integrated 8-h PM(2.5) concentrations in the non-chipped plot (AVG 773.4 microg/m(3), SD 321.8 microg/m(3)) were moderately higher (1-tail P-value 0.06) than those at the chipped plot (AVG 460.3 microg/m(3), SD 147.3 microg/m(3)). Real-time PM(2.5) and CO data measured at a position in the chipped plot were uniformly lower than those observed at the same position in the non-chipped plot over the same time period. These results demonstrate that smoke exposures resulting from burned chipped plots are considerably lower than from burned non-chipped plots. These findings have potentially important implications for both firefighters working prescribed burnings at chipped vs. non-chipped sites, as well as nearby communities who may be impacted from smoke traveling downwind from these sights.