Who are we?

How did we get here?

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http://akfireconsortium.uaf.edu

Sarah Trainor, PI

Scott Rupp, Co-PI

Alison York, CoordinatorRandi Jandt, Fire Ecologist

“Zeke” Ziel, Fire Behavior & Weather

Mission: Better Collaboration Between

Fire Science and Fire Management

Alaska Fire Science Consortium

Coordinate current science delivery efforts

Facilitate communication between scientists

& agency land/fire managers

Create formal outreach mechanisms for

effectively delivering fire science information

Work with managers to ensure delivery is

practical and useful for agencies

…working together to bridge the gap in fire science delivery and outreach

Primary Goals:

Management Challenges

Temperature

Season Length

Ignitions

Rainfall

Permafrost

May 2

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More heat = drier fuels = more combustion

Draining, drying

fuels

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Recession of permafrost will turn Alaska’s

fire regime on it’s head

Scientific evidence of fire regime change

and its consequences is mounting, but

how can that science be used to guide fire

and land management policy?

Got Science: so what? Extreme

Events

Ecological

Impacts

Infrastructure

Damage

Smoke &

Health

Impacts

Economic

Impacts

(ex. Tourism)

Preparation

by Residents

&

Communities

IAR

PC

Wild

fires Co

llabo

ration

Team (n

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New Remote Sensing Technologies: can they help?

✓ Satellite detection of new ignitions and daily fire

growth

✓ Infrared mapping (NIROPS in 2015) & thermal

imagery

✓ Advances in communication technology

❑ Improvements in weather and risk forecasts

❑ Better real-time smoke dispersion models

❑ Improvements in understanding of factors leading to extreme events

❑ Real-time fuel moisture trends—especially in deep organic layers.

❑ Trends in fire severity, permafrost and vegetation response to deep burning,

habitat impacts.

2015 K

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Opportunities to Apply Remote Sensing in Boreal/Arctic Wildfire Management &

Science: A WorkshopApril 4-6, 2017

Proposal to the NASA Applied Sciences (Wildfire) Program

Research Team:• PI: Alison York1

• Co-Is: Randi Jandt1, Tom Heinrichs2, Rachel Loehman3, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez4, Tatiana Loboda5

• Collaborators: Vince Ambrosia6, Jennifer Jenkins7

– 1. Alaska Fire Science Consortium, International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF)

– 2. Geographic Information Network of Alaska, UAF– 3. USGS Alaska Science Center, Anchorage– 4. Michigan Tech Research Institute, Ann Arbor– 5. Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park– 6. NASA Ames Research Center– 7. Bureau of Land Management, Alaska Fire Service, Fairbanks

Goals:2

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1) Potential fire risk: Can remotely sensed data

estimate spring soil moisture and surface and

subsurface fuel moisture and fuel conditions, and thus

provide critical inputs for fuel moisture indices used to

predict fire danger and risk?

2) Near real-time fire behavior:

Which remotely sensed data are best

for fire detection, plume tracking of fire

emissions, fire behavior modeling,

mapping of flaming fronts, fire intensity,

active fire perimeters, and response for

ongoing fires?

3) Post-fire effects: Can we develop

analytical methods for remotely

sensed data to assess fire severity,

consumption/CO2 balance, active-layer

changes, and successional trajectories

of boreal vegetation types?