Measuring Smoke Emissions on DOD Installations: 1. Southwestern Shrub and Grassland Fuels

While it is currently challenging to use prescribed burning in chaparral and other southwestern shrub fuel types due to many constraints, any such activities require smoke management planning. Information on fuels and emissions from chaparral were limited and based on older sampling systems. The DoD SERDP program funded a project to measure fuels and smoke emissions in the laboratory and field. These data were then compared to smoke transport predictions using the current air quality tools (CMAQ, BlueSky, and SMARTFIRE. A collaborative laboratory experiment produced new emission factors for many previously unmeasured gaseous and particulate emissions. We successfully measured fuels and sampled emissions from the ground and an aircraft on two prescribed burns in chaparral and one in Emory oak woodland. Smoke emissions were measured on three additional chaparral fires including one in which we followed the plume nearly 20 miles downwind from an airborne platform. Of the three air quality tools, BlueSky produced predictions which compared favorably with observed data. This presentation will present highlights of this completed, complex, multi-partner project which has produced numerous results to date.