Monday, 10 January 2000: 2:00 PM
Observations of the dynamics of wildfires are limited,
particulary at the fine scales at which fireline vortex
dynamics occurs. To address this problem, we have
developed a technique that uses infrared videocamera
imagery, either mounted on the ground or on an airplane, to
investigate the fine-scale dynamics within firelines. This
work reviews the observations and analysis of data
collected from a tower during the burn of Plot 6 during
ICFME (International Crown Fire Modeling Experiment) in
1997, from the National Science Foundation's C130 aircraft
during WiFE (WildFire Experiment) in 1998, and from a
cherry picker near Australian grass fires in 1998. In
these experiments, infrared imagery was collected with an
Inframetrics Thermacam and analyzed using image flow
analysis to estimate of air velocities and follow features
within the fireline. In ICFME, the analysis revealed
10-30 m/s updrafts, 10-20 m/s downdrafts, 5-10 m/s
horizontal winds, and pairs of counterrotating towers
within the fireline. WiFE demonstrated that these
observational and analysis techniques could be used on
airplanes, with corrections in analysis for the aircraft
motion. One particular flight sequence near Glacier
National Park captured a finger of flame shooting
approximately 60 m ahead of a fireline over a few seconds.
Data from the grass burns in Australia are still being
analyzed, but preliminary results show the observed
dynamics of the crown fire and the intense grass fires near
Darwin are highly similar.
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