Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Kinematic Structure Of A Wildland Fire Plume Observed By Doppler Lidar, A. Charland, Craig Clements

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

Wildland fires present a challenging environment to make meteorological measurements. Observations in the vicinity of wildland fires are needed to better understand fire-atmosphere interactions and to provide data for the evaluation of coupled fire-atmosphere models. An observational study was conducted during a low-intensity prescribed fire in an area of complex terrain with grass fuels east of San José, California. A ground-based scanning Doppler lidar acquired radial wind velocities and backscatter intensity in and around the fire plume from multiple horizontal and vertical scans. The development of a convergence zone was consistently observed to exist downwind of the plume and was …