Research Meteorology in the US Forest Service: A Programmatic Update from the USFS Washington Office

The US Forest Service Research and Development area supports atmospheric research to improve modeling of surface-atmosphere interactions during wildland fires, to better understand how smoke transports and disperses in the atmosphere, and to study the possibility and severity of an upcoming wildfire season (i.e. subseasonal-to-seasonal predictability). Though heavily decentralized relative to other US agencies, the USFS is broken into multiple research stations across the US and its territories. Each research station has priorities that are unique to the geography and expertise of research in each office. This talk will provide a programmatic update related to past, present, and upcoming research and development activities related to fire weather and atmospheric science.