HR: 0800h
AN: B41B-0111    [Abstracts]
TI: Effect of Fuel Moisture on Fire Spread: A Sensitivity Analysis
AU: * Dasgupta, S
EM: sdasgupt@gmu.edu
AF: Center for Earth Observation and Space Research, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030 United States
AU: Hao, X
EM: xhao1@gmu.edu
AF: Center for Earth Observation and Space Research, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030 United States
AU: Qu, J
EM: jqu@gmu.edu
AF: Center for Earth Observation and Space Research, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030 United States
AU: Bhoi, S
EM: sbhoi@gmu.edu
AF: Center for Earth Observation and Space Research, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030 United States
AB: Fuel moisture, live as well as dead is an important parameter for wildfire danger and wildfire spread. In this work we use the fire behavior model FARSITE to analyze the sensitivity of fire spread on fuel moisture. Fire spread is simulated over two wildfire prone areas in California and Georgia representative of the different conditions in the western and eastern USA. The selected locations are actual wildfire sites and thus give us an opportunity to compare the effect of change in fuel moisture over two different surface types as well as evaluate the performance of the model. The results indicate that fuel moisture effects are different over different surface types and fuel moisture estimation using remote sensing must be considered for operational fire danger rating systems.
DE: 0400 Biogeosciences
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting