Pacific Northwest Research Station

Title: Integrating models to predict regional haze from wildland fire.

Author: McKenzie, D.; OÂ’Neill, S.M.; Larkin, N.; Norheim, R.A.

Date: 2006

Source: Ecological Modeling. 199: 278–288

Description: Visibility impairment from regional haze is a significant problem throughout the continental United States. A substantial portion of regional haze is produced by smoke from prescribed and wildland fires. Here we describe the integration of four simulation models, an array of GIS raster layers, and a set of algorithms for fire-danger calculations into a modeling framework for simulating regional-scale smoke dispersion. We focus on a representative fire season (2003) in the Northwestern USA, on a 12-km domain, and track the simulated dispersion and concentration of PM2.5 over the course of the season. Simulated visibility reductions over national parks and wilderness areas are within the ranges of measured values at selected monitoring sites, although the magnitudes of peak events are underestimated because these include inputs other than fire.

Keywords: regional haze, integrated models, fire regimes, fire emissions, smoke dispersion

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Citation

McKenzie, D.; OÂ’Neill, S.M.; Larkin, N.; Norheim, R.A.  2006.  Integrating models to predict regional haze from wildland fire..   Ecological Modeling. 199: 278–288