HR: 1340h
AN: PA33A-1028    [Abstracts]
TI: Automated system for smoke dispersion prediction due to wild fires in Alaska
AU: * Kulchitsky, A
EM: kulchits@arsc.edu
AF: University of Alaska Fairbanks, ARSC, Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, WRRB, PO Box 756020, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6020, United States
AU: Stuefer, M
EM: stuefer@gi.alaska.edu
AF: University of Alaska Fairbanks, GI, Geophysical Institute, 903 Koyukuk Drive, Fairbanks, AK 99775-7320, United States
AU: Higbie, L
EM: higbie@arsc.edu
AF: University of Alaska Fairbanks, ARSC, Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, WRRB, PO Box 756020, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6020, United States
AU: Newby, G
EM: newby@arsc.edu
AF: University of Alaska Fairbanks, ARSC, Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, WRRB, PO Box 756020, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6020, United States
AB: Community climate models have enabled development of specific environmental forecast systems. The University of Alaska (UAF) smoke group was created to adapt a smoke forecast system to the Alaska region. The US Forest Service (USFS) Missoula Fire Science Lab had developed a smoke forecast system based on the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model including chemistry (WRF/Chem). Following the successful experience of USFS, which runs their model operationally for the contiguous U.S., we develop a similar system for Alaska in collaboration with scientists from the USFS Missoula Fire Science Lab. Wildfires are a significant source of air pollution in Alaska because the climate and vegetation favor annual summer fires that burn huge areas. Extreme cases occurred in 2004, when an area larger than Maryland (more than 25000~km²) burned. Small smoke particles with a diameter less than 10~μm can penetrate deep into lungs causing health problems. Smoke also creates a severe restriction to air transport and has tremendous economical effect. The smoke dispersion and forecast system for Alaska was developed at the Geophysical Institute (GI) and the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center (ARSC), both at University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). They will help the public and plan activities a few days in advance to avoid dangerous smoke exposure. The availability of modern high performance supercomputers at ARSC allows us to create and run high-resolution, WRF-based smoke dispersion forecast for the entire State of Alaska. The core of the system is a Python program that manages the independent pieces. Our adapted Alaska system performs the following steps \begin{itemize}