HR: 10:55h
AN: A32B-03 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Modelling Emissions From Boreal Wildfires for Climate Change and Air Quality Issues
AU: * Lavoue, D
EM: david.lavoue@ec.gc.ca
AF: Meteorological Service of Canada, 4905 Dufferin Street, Toronto, ON M3H5T4 Canada
AU: Gong, S
EM: sunling.gong@ec.gc.ca
AF: Meteorological Service of Canada, 4905 Dufferin Street, Toronto, ON M3H5T4 Canada
AU: Stocks, B J
EM: bstocks@nrcan.gc.ca
AF: Canadian Forest Service, Great Lakes Forestry Centre 1219 Queen Street East, Sault Ste. Marie, ON P6A2E5 Canada
AU: Rousseau, J
EM: jacques.rousseau@ec.gc.ca
AF: Service Meteorologique du Canada, Region du Quebec 100 boulevard Alexis-Nihon, Ville Saint-Laurent, QC H4M2N8 Canada
AB: We developed an original approach to model emissions from boreal forest fires based on weather conditions, forest fuel patterns, and topography. The Canadian FBP (Fire Behavior Prediction) System permits calculation of fuel consumption and rate of spread for individual fires on an hourly basis. Weather conditions are obtained by running the Canadian weather forecast model GEM (Global Environmental Multiscale) at the regional configuration of 24 km. A fire growth parameterization was established from the study of a few Canadian wildfires. Geographical distribution and temporal variability of emission amounts, as well as injection heights, are assessed hourly. The emission-processing package was applied to the Quebec forest fires in the summer of 2002. About 200 fires contributed to 21% and 3% of annual Quebec and Canada s greenhouse gas emissions, respectively. They also represented 17% and 79% of all Canada s black carbon and particulate organic carbon sources, respectively. Emission sources were integrated in the air quality model CHRONOS of Environment Canada, which allowed significant improvement of simulated particle concentrations in the east of Canada and US. A dynamic model was also designed to forecast wildfire emissions. The previous fire growth parameterization is replaced by a growth model based on elliptical wavelet propagation, with the fire front spread driven by GEM weather forecast. The new model takes into account the variability of the relative proportions of both flaming and smoldering combustion phases. Moreover, it estimates convection column heights from the energy released at the different fireline sections. A cluster analysis of MODIS hotspots is performed to define initial perimeters of individual fires, when ignition points are unknown. The dynamic emission model was applied to a few typical large boreal forest fires. Main results will be presented.
DE: 0315 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0426, 1610)
DE: 0340 Middle atmosphere: composition and chemistry
DE: 0341 Middle atmosphere: constituent transport and chemistry (3334)
DE: 0368 Troposphere: constituent transport and chemistry
DE: 1615 Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling (0412, 0414, 0793, 4805, 4912)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005