EAGER: Exploratory Studies of Wildfire Plume Dynamics and Microphysics

野火对全国和全球的生命和财产造成了巨大的影响。野火的一个方面没有受到那么多的关注，那就是烟羽以及它如何与大气相互作用。2016年夏末，NSF批准了怀俄明州国王航空研究飞机的短期部署，以提供爱达荷州博伊西附近火灾的空中测量。这一奖项将资助对这些数据的分析，以确定这些测量是否能够提供足够的信息来回答许多关于野火羽流特征的悬而未决的问题。该项目的潜在影响是验证和改进火灾行为模型，这可能允许更安全和更有效地使用空中和地面资源来扑灭野火。野火羽流与航空和空气质量之间也有很大的联系。这位研究人员将分析在2016年8月爱达荷州博伊西东北部一场大规模野火样本的快速部署到野火(RaDFIRE-2016)活动期间收集的数据。对野火羽流动力学和微物理的研究主要是通过数值模拟模拟进行的，并通过地面遥感进行观测。RaDFIRE活动是一次初步测试，以确定怀俄明大学国王航空研究飞机上的仪器是否能够成功观察到重要的野火特征。初步分析表明，测试是成功的，但需要进行更彻底的分析，以确定数据是否足以回答有关羽流动力学和微物理的悬而未决的问题。该项目符合国家科学基金会热切的计划，因为重点放在未经测试但可能具有变革性的研究想法上，这些想法采用了截然不同的分析方法。

Wildfires have a tremendous impact on lives and property around the country and the globe. One aspect of wildfires that has not received as much attention is the the smoke plume and how it interacts with the atmosphere. In the late summer of 2016, NSF approved a short deployment of the Wyoming King Air research aircraft to provide airborne measurements of a fire near Boise, Idaho. This award will fund the analysis of that data to determine whether the measurements are able to provide enough information to answer the many outstanding questions about the characteristics of wildfire plumes. The potential impact of the project is on the validation and improvement of fire behavior models, which may allow a safer and more efficient usage of air and ground resources for fighting wildfires. There is also a significant connection between wildfire plumes and aviation and air quality. The researcher will analyze data collected during the Rapid Deployment to Wildfires (RaDFIRE-2016) campaign which sampled a large wildfire northeast of Boise, Idaho in August 2016. Studies of wildfire plume dynamics and microphysics have mainly been conducted through numerical modeling simulations and observed through ground-based remote sensing. The RaDFIRE campaign was an initial test to determine whether instruments on the University of Wyoming King Air research aircraft could successfully observe important wildfire characteristics. Initial analysis suggests that the test was successful, but more thorough analysis is needed to determine whether the data is adequate enough to answer unresolved questions about plume dynamics and microphysics. The project fits within the EAGER program at NSF due to the focus on untested but potentially transformative research ideas that employ a radically different analysis approach.