Enhancement of the 1988 northern U.S. drought due to wildfires
نویسنده
چکیده
[1] Drought provides a favourable environment for the ignition and spread of intense wildfires. This study examines the opposite relationship between the two natural disasters, that is, the role of wildfires in the development of drought. The case of the 1988 northern U.S. wildfires is investigated. Emissions of smoke particles from the wildfires and the resulting optical depth are estimated using wildfire data and empirical algorithms. Radiative forcing of the smoke particles and atmospheric response are simulated using a regional climate model. It is found that absorption of solar radiation by smoke particles weakens the North America trough in the middle latitudes, which is a major generator of precipitation in the Midwest. Rainfall in this region is therefore reduced, providing evidence for the role of wildfires in enhancing drought. Citation: Liu, Y. (2005), Enhancement of the 1988 northern U.S. drought due to wildfires, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L10806, doi:10.1029/2005GL022411.
منابع مشابه
Wildfire potential evaluation during a drought event with a regional climate model and NDVI
a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Regional climate modeling Wildfire potential Drought KBDI Soil moisture NDVI Regional climate modeling is a technique for simulating high-resolution physical processes in the atmosphere, soil and vegetation. It can be used to evaluate wildfire potential by either providing meteorological conditions for computation of fire indices or predicting soil moisture as a ...
متن کاملInterannual variations in PM2.5 due to wildfires in the Western United States.
In this study we have evaluated the role of wildfires on concentrations of fine particle (d < 2.5 microm) organic carbon (OC) and particulate mass (PM2.5) in the Western United States for the period 1988-2004. To do this, we examined the relationship between mean summer PM2.5 and OC concentrations at 39 IMPROVE sites with a database of fires developed from federal fire reports. The gridded data...
متن کاملLong lead statistical forecasts of area burned in western U.S. wildfires by ecosystem province
A statistical forecast methodology exploits large-scale patterns in monthly U.S. Climatological Division Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) values over a wide region and several seasons to predict area burned in western U.S. wildfires by ecosystem province a season in advance. The forecast model, which is based on canonical correlations, indicates that a few characteristic patterns determine ...
متن کاملAn integrated model for multi-period fuel management and fire suppression preparedness planning in forests (Appreciated as the best paper of 14th International Industrial Engineering Conference)
Wildfires are of the forest-related disasters caused by inhumane factors. Spreading of these fires is due to the increase of the density of flammable plants. Two important approaches to prevent this occurrence are fuel treatment and fire suppression resources preparedness. In this paper, a mixed integer programming model is proposed based on the covering location and assignment problems which ...
متن کاملBurning down the house: Wildfire and the benefits of natural disaster mitigation
For more than a century, government wildfire managers have aggressively suppressed wildfires within western U.S. forests. In that time, our understanding of the ecological benefits of wildfire has improved. Nevertheless, it has been politically difficult for managers to limit suppression effort, even for relatively non-threatening wildfires. As wildfires within the western U.S. become more freq...
متن کامل