Identifying the Physical Drivers and Radar Signatures of Fire-Generated Tornadic Vortices

识别火灾产生的龙卷风的物理驱动因素和雷达特征

• 批准号: 2114251
• 负责人: Neil Lareau
• 金额: $ 52.03万
• 依托单位: Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada, Reno
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-07-01 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2114251&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Identifying; Physical; Drivers; Radar; Signatures

Wildfires can generate their own severe weather, including tornados and thunderstorms embedded in the wildfire plume. These fire-generated extremes threaten fire-fighter and public safety yet are poorly understood and often unpredicted. To fill this knowledge gap, the investigators propose to understand fire-generated extreme weather by identifying the common factors contributing fire-generated tornados and thunderstorms from weather radar and satellite data. The project will also engage the public in wildfire science such as developing middle-school in-class lessons focused on fire-generated weather and conducting a citizen-science social-media campaign to collect photographs of the ash and debris that “rain” down from wildfire plumes. The crowd-sourced data collected by the public will help improve our understanding of wildfire plumes for better documenting the size and shape of material lofted into the sky.The proposed work is motivated by decades of success in using radar and satellite observations to issue life-saving warnings for convectional severe weather (e.g., severe thunderstorms). For fire-generated tornadic vortices (FGTV) and pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) these same tools show remarkable, yet incompletely realized potential. To fully realize this potential, new physical and conceptual models are required for interpreting radar and satellite observations of the wildfire environment. To develop these models, the investigators will test a sequence of hypotheses designed to isolate the common characteristics of radar and satellite observed fire and plume processes linked to the FGTV development. These hypotheses are based on preliminary observations demonstrating FGTV producing fires often exhibit: (1) bent-over and bifurcating plumes with both embedded and shedding vortices, (2) asymmetries in flow splitting and flow reversal around the fire that favor one sense of vortex rotation (i.e., cyclonic vs. anticyclonic), and (3) pyroCb initiation concurrent with vortex intensification. In isolating the common attributes and observed signatures of FGTV fires, the research team aims to produce conceptual models for FGTV formation. These conceptual models will facilitate life-saving warnings and enhance decision support for wildfire stakeholders, thereby providing an immediate societal benefit. Community engagement and education as part of this proposal will include: (a) social-media citizen-science campaign linking radar observations with photographic documentation of size and shape of ash falling from wildfire plumes, (b) in-classroom middle school learning experiences and curriculum coupled with an app-based data collection module, (c) graduate student mentoring and curriculum development, and (d) outreach to the public and wildfire stakeholders. The citizen-science campaign is expected to reach 1000s of users annually, and the in-classroom program upwards of 500 students per year.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

野火可以产生自己的恶劣天气，包括龙卷风和雷暴嵌入在野火羽流中。这些产生的极端危机威胁着消防员和公共安全，但人们理解不足，而且通常没有预测。为了填补这一知识差距，调查人员建议通过确定从天气雷达和卫星数据中造成火灾生成的龙卷风和雷暴的共同因素来了解火灾生成的极端天气。该项目还将吸引公众参与野火科学，例如开发着以火灾生成天气的中学课程，并进行公民科学社会媒体运动，以收集从野火羽流中“下雨”的灰烬和碎屑的照片。公众收集的众包数据将有助于我们对野火羽流的理解，以更好地记录天空中的材料的大小和形状。拟议的工作是出于数十年来成功使用雷达和卫星观察来发出生命挽救生命的警告以提出生命的警告以实现便利性恶劣天气的动机（例如，严重的thendendercrestorms）。对于火灾生成的龙卷风涡旋（FGTV）和pyocumulonimbus（pyrocb），这些相同的工具表现出了显着但尚未完全实现的潜力。为了充分意识到这一潜力，需要新的物理和概念模型来解释对野火环境的雷达和卫星观察。为了开发这些模型，研究人员将测试一系列旨在隔离雷达和卫星观察到的火和羽流过程的假设的序列，这些假设与FGTV开发有关。 These hypotheses are based on preliminary observations demonstrating FGTV production fires often exposed: (1) bent-over and bifurcating plumes with both embedded and shedding vortices, (2) asymmetrices in flow splitting and flow reversed around the fire that favor one sense of vortex rotation (i.e., cyclonic vs. anticyclonic), and (3) pyroCb Initiation Concurrent with涡流强化。在隔离FGTV火灾的常见属性和观察到的签名时，研究小组旨在为FGTV形成生成概念模型。这些概念模型将促进挽救生命的警告，并增强对野火利益相关者的决策支持，从而提供直接的社会利益。 Community engagement and education as part of this proposal will Include: (a) social-media citizen-science campaign linking radiar observations with photographic documentation of size and shape of ash falling from wildfire plumes, (b) in-classroom middle school learning experiences and curriculum coupled with an app-based data collection module, (c) graduate student mentaling and curriculum development, and (d) outreach to the public and wildfire stakeholders.预计公民科学运动每年将达到1000秒的用户，每年超过500名学生的课堂内课程。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子和更广泛的影响审查标准来通过评估来表现出珍贵的支持。

项目成果

Fire-Generated Tornadic Vortices

火焰产生的龙卷风漩涡

• DOI: 10.1175/bams-d-21-0199.1
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
• 影响因子: 8
• 作者: Lareau, Neil P.;Nauslar, Nicholas J.;Bentley, Evan;Roberts, Matthew;Emmerson, Samuel;Brong, Brian;Mehle, Matthew;Wallman, James
• 通讯作者: Wallman, James

Chasing Fire Tornadoes for Science

科学追逐火龙卷风

• DOI: 10.1029/2022eo220426
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Eos
• 作者: Shepherd, Emily