Citation

Witze A. Nature 2019; 569(7758): 610.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1038/d41586-019-01604-w

PMID

31138923

Abstract

Sometime in late June, if all goes to plan, a helicopter will hover above a thickly forested slope in Utah and set it ablaze. The goal is to clear out dead conifer trees to allow quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) to regain a foothold in this high-altitude national forest. But the blaze could also help scientists better understand wildfires.

As flames and smoke rise, an interdisciplinary research team will use drones, radar and other equipment to track how the 900-hectare burn spreads. “We’re setting up an experimental situation to look at fire in ways we don’t normally,” says Nancy French, a wildfire scientist at Michigan Technological University in Houghton.

The Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment is a rare chance for researchers to study a large fire from start to finish1. It is part of a broader push to gather data from wildfires in western North America as they happen. Starting in July, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA plan to fly research planes over more than a dozen naturally occurring wildfires in the region, collecting data on how smoke plumes rise from a blaze.

Both studies aim to improve forecasts of where smoke will spread, affecting people’s homes and health ...

Language: en

Keywords

Atmospheric science; Climate sciences; Environmental sciences