French, Nancy: Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI) (Project Lead)
Project Funding:
2011 - 2012
NRA: 2010 NASA: Science Definition Team for Carbon Monitoring System
Funded by NASA
Abstract:
In support of the NASA Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) the Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI) proposes to provide expertise and outputs on aspects of carbon cycling related to wildland fire and agricultural burning (a.k.a. biomass burning). Under the proposed project Dr. Nancy French will serve as an expert in fire emissions estimation to provide needed expertise and data sets for aspects of the Integrated Emission/Uptake ("Flux") pilot project. Dr. French has been involved with geospatial evaluation of wildland fire effects for over 20 years and is currently funded to help quantify impacts of agricultural burning as a Co-I for a NASA Applied Science Program grant (A. Soja, PI). Her expertise in remote sensing of fire effects, including burn area mapping, fire severity, and emissions modeling, will provide an in-depth knowledge set for evaluation of the impacts of fire on carbon fluxes that are currently included within the CASA models being used in the pilot study. We propose to supply, as needed, both input and validation data for the biomass burning emissions part of the CASA-GFED land-atmosphere carbon model, and provide expertise from French and her team on interpretation of nuances related to fire effects, including remote measure of burn area and fire severity, that drive variability in emissions and post-fire vegetation function.
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):
