French, Nancy: Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI) (Project Lead)
Billmire, Michael: Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI) (Co-Investigator)
Project Funding:
2012 - 2014
NRA: 2011 NASA: Carbon Monitoring System
Funded by USDA FS, NASA
Abstract:
Current work under the NASA-CMS Flux Pilot project includes measures of biomass
burning emissions for the quantification of carbon flux from land to the atmosphere. Fire
is recognized as an important mechanism for this exchange. Measures of biomass burning
emissions are included in this pilot project, but the estimates would greatly benefit from
further refinement, and some idea of the uncertainty in biomass burning emissions is
needed. There is a growing community of international, federal, and state-level parties
that desire and in some cases require refinements in methods to quantify emissions
from wildland and prescribed fire (biomass burning). To meet these requirements, these
parties are developing a suite of methods to address their needs. We propose to use tools
developed from collaborations with the US Forest Service and US Environmental Protection Agency, as well as recent research carried out for NASA, to refine the fire
emissions module of the CASA-GFED model currently used by CMS.
For the proposed project, to be conducted in Phase II of the CMS, we are proposing to
assist the NASA-Goddard CASA-GFED team in improving the GFED approach
currently used in the CMS Phase I Flux Pilot project. We will use the Wildland Fire
Emissions Information System (WFEIS), an approach developed under NASA s Carbon
Cycle Science program in collaboration with others in the fire emissions community, to
adjust GFED estimates over North America. WFEIS operates at a 1-km spatial grid scale,
while GFED operates at a 0.5 deg grid scale. The two approaches use the same general
construct, however they use different data sources for the model parameters and make
different assumptions when applying the general model. WFEIS uses a ground-based
method to map biomass (fuel loading) and a more direct method to estimate combustion
completeness (fuel consumption) than GFED. WFEIS was developed as a regional to
landscape-scale method, making it an appropriate tool to refine the GFED estimates of
emissions for areas where the two methods can be implemented.
The proposed activity includes: 1) improvements in quantifying mapped fuels (biomass)
for the US and combustion in deep organic soils of Alaska; 2) development of an
uncertainty measurement methodology for emissions estimation; 3) production of 1-kmscale fire emissions estimates for the US; 4) a comparison of these products to CASAGFED emissions estimates; and 5) refinements of GFED parameters based on the results
found with WFEIS. Specific outputs from this activity will provide important information
for improving our understanding of carbon emissions from wildland fire.
Publications:
French, N. H. F., McKenzie, D., Erickson, T., Koziol, B., Billmire, M., Endsley, K. A., Yager Scheinerman, N. K., Jenkins, L., Miller, M. E., Ottmar, R., Prichard, S. 2014. Modeling Regional-Scale Wildland Fire Emissions with the Wildland Fire Emissions Information System. Earth Interactions. 18(16), 1-26. DOI: 10.1175/EI-D-14-0002.1
van Leeuwen, T. T., van der Werf, G. R., Hoffmann, A. A., Detmers, R. G., Rucker, G., French, N. H. F., Archibald, S., Carvalho Jr., J. A., Cook, G. D., de Groot, W. J., Hely, C., Kasischke, E. S., Kloster, S., McCarty, J. L., Pettinari, M. L., Savadogo, P., Alvarado, E. C., Boschetti, L., Manuri, S., Meyer, C. P., Siegert, F., Trollope, L. A., Trollope, W. S. W. 2014. Biomass burning fuel consumption rates: a field measurement database. Biogeosciences. 11(24), 7305-7329. DOI: 10.5194/bg-11-7305-2014
McKenzie, D., French, N. H. F., Ottmar, R. D. 2012. National database for calculating fuel available to wildfires. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union. 93(6), 57-58. DOI: 10.1029/2012EO060002
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):