Using Mobile Atmospheric Profiling Systems to Monitor and Study Extreme Wildfire and Fire Weather in Utility Operations
This talk will introduce the concept of using mobile atmospheric measurement assets to study fire behavior during active wildfires.
The California State University-Mobile Atmospheric Profiling System (CSU-MAPS) is able to probe the smoke column of large wildfires from a safe distance and obtain vertical profiles of wind speed. direction, and plume structures. This includes entrainment and vorticity which can cause extreme fire spread.
Findings from these realtime wildfire profilings have shown that fire-induced winds can be up to 3-4 times greater than the ambient wind typicallyused for fire model initiation. An important factor in utility risk assessments and grid resilience.
The CSU-MAPS consists of a scanning Doppler lidar, a microwave profiler, a surface automatic weather station, and an upper-air sounding system mounted on a heavy-duty vehicle and has been deployed to over 25 wildfires in California.
Observations from the Camp Fire indicate the utility of such a deployment strategy and the need for further observation systems to be improve wildfire prevention and response in the most vulnerable areas of California. Particularly as California considers drastic measures such as de-energization, improving tools to support a more vigilant utility operation are essential.
Date and Time
Location
Hosts
Registration
- Date: 20 Feb 2019
- Time: 11:45 AM to 01:00 PM
- All times are (GMT-08:00) US/Pacific
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- 505 Van Ness Avenue, Courtyard Room
- San Francisco, California
- United States 94102
- Starts 13 February 2019 02:37 PM
- Ends 20 February 2019 10:30 AM
- All times are (GMT-08:00) US/Pacific
- No Admission Charge
Speakers
Dr. Craig Clements
Dr. Craig Clements is an Associate Professor of Meteorology at San Jose State University and Director of the Fire Weather Research Laboratory. He leads research on fire weather, extreme fire behavior, fire-atmosphere interactions, and conducting wildland fire field experiments. Dr. Clements teaches courses in Fire Weather, Wildfire
Science, Mountain Meteorology, Climate Change, and Meteorological Instrumentation. He received his PhD in Geophysics from the University of Houston in 2007, his MS in Meteorology from the University of Utah,
and a BS degree in Geography from the University of Nevada, Reno. In 2012, Dr. Clements received the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award for his research on wildfire dynamics and fire weather.
His current research focuses on obtaining meteorological measurements using state-of-the-art Mobile Atmospheric Profiling Systems such as Doppler Lidar and Radar at active wildfires in the western US.