Description:

Wildfires are complex phenomena, and as witnessed in the recent Boulder County fires, the combination of extreme meteorological and on-the-ground conditions has the potential for devastation at large spatial and temporal scales. Climate change is only making matters worse, with extreme fires becoming the new norm. To better understand the pre-conditions leading to fire, the dynamics of the fire itself, and the post-fire recovery of ecosystems, NSF has funded fire related research across its diverse Directorates; including studies to support smoke plume modeling, uncertainty characterization in forecast models, fire attribution, the feedbacks associated with land-use change (natural and built), the impacts of fire on sediment transport, flooding, and soil carbon storage, the community-level development of early warning sensors, and aircraft campaigns focused on same-day smoke nitrogen chemistry and the evolution of aerosol optical properties.  This 90-minute session will address the challenges and opportunities in wildfire research, bringing together expertise from multiple disciplines including meteorologists, atmospheric chemists, ecologists, and earth scientists, and on-the-ground fire responders and managers who need to make informed decisions in real-time. It will comprise six invited speakers covering a broad array of R&D issues.  

This session could be co-sponsored with the following:

(i)18TH SYMPOSIUM ON SOCIETAL APPLICATIONS: POLICY, RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

(ii)  11TH SYMPOSIUM ON BUILDING A WEATHER-READY NATION: ENHANCING OUR NATION'S READINESS, RESPONSIVENESS, AND RESILIENCE TO HIGH IMPACT WEATHER EVENTS; and

(iii)  SPECIAL SYMPOSIUM ON PREDICTING A CONTINUUM OF ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS (FACETS)

Co-Chairs: Anjuli S. Bamzai, Senior Science Advisor, Directorate for Geosciences, National Science Foundation; and Marc Stieglitz, Arctic Natural Sciences, Office of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation