Application of mobile dual-polarisation radar for wildfire monitoring and nowcasting

Mobile weather radar has the potential to support greatly enhanced monitoring and nowcasting around wild fires and mitigating the impacts of some of the biggest meteorological hazards associated with firefighting. This presentation will describe the use of mobile X-band radar for detecting wind shifts and circulations around fires, the potential for the detection of ember transport and early detection of pyro-cumulus. Examples of high time resolution X-band mobile radar data from very close to controlled environmental burns and operational S-band observations of wildfires will be used to illustrate the potential of these systems to provide improved real-time fire weather intelligenc. Fire ash plumes are characterised by high Z_DR and very low ρ_HV(0). This allows a clear delineation between clear air, precipitation, and ash components, but strong returns from high ash concentrations can potentially mask some of the early development of precipitation.