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Fuels planning: science synthesis and integration; environmental consequences fact sheet 11: Smoke Impact Spreadsheet (SIS) model

Publications Posted on: June 22, 2020
The Smoke Impact Spreadsheet (SIS) is a simple-to-use planning model for calculating particulate matter (PM) emissions and concentrations downwind of wildland fires. This fact sheet identifies the intended users and uses, required inputs, what the model does and does not do, and tells the user how to obtain the model. Other publications in this series

Break-even point: Suppression-cost analyses in Montana weigh resource values as determined by tax records and available GIS data

Publications Posted on: March 12, 2020
Over the past decade, an increase in larger wildland fires has converged with rapid growth in the wildland-urban interface. Suppression resources, including firefighters, equipment and money, are pressed to their limits. Attacking every fire with equal priority is not an-option, as some play an essential role in keeping forests healthy.

Preface: Special issue on wildland fires

Publications Posted on: May 11, 2018
Wildland fires are a critical Earth-system process that impacts human populations in each settled continent [1,2]. Wildland fires have often been stated as being essential to human life and civilization through the impacts on land clearance, agriculture, and hunting, with fire as a phenomenon serving a key role in the development of agricultural and industrial practices [3,4].

Convective ignition

Projects Posted on: April 03, 2018
Recent research conducted at the Missoula Fire Lab has found that the amount of radiant heat in wildland fires is not sufficient to ignite fine fuel particles such as needles and grasses. Understanding the ignition process due to convective heating will allow for better prediction of the transition from surface to crown fire and crown fire spread, two aspects of wildland fire behavior that are largely misunderstood. Experiments are underway to determine if and how ignition due to convective heating is different than that from radiative heating.

Reconstructing U.S. wildland fire trends

Projects Posted on: April 03, 2018
The ecological, economic, and health and safety concerns surrounding wildland fires are driving the need to better understand climate-fire interactions.

Effects of season on ignition of live wildland fuels using the forced ignition and flame spread test apparatus

Publications Posted on: August 15, 2017
An understanding of what variables affect the ignition of live wildland fuels is crucial to predicting crown fire spread, the most poorly understood type of wildland fire. Ignition tests were performed over the course of an entire year for ten species (three species in year one, seven in year two) to evaluate seasonal changes in flammability.

Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE): Modeling gaps and data needs

Publications Posted on: July 20, 2017
Fire and smoke models are numerical tools for simulating fire behavior, smoke dynamics, and air quality impacts of wildland fires. Fire models are developed based on the fundamental chemistry and physics of combustion and fire spread or statistical analysis of experimental data (Sullivan 2009). They provide information on fire spread and fuel consumption for safe and efficient prescribed (Rx) burning and wildfire suppression.

Fire on the early western landscape: An annotated record of wildland fires 1776-1900

Publications Posted on: October 03, 2016
Scientific and historical literature was searched for documented accounts of early fires in the '"interior West" - Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and eastern Oregon. One hundred and forty-five accounts of fires by 44 observers were found. The majority of accounts described fires in progress.

Reducing the wildland fire threat to homes: Where and how much?

Publications Posted on: May 12, 2016
Understanding how ignitions occur is critical for effectively mitigating home fire losses during wildland fires. The threat of life and property losses during wildland fires is a significant issue for Federal, State, and local agencies that have responsibilities involving homes within and adjacent to wildlands. Agencies have shifted attention to communities adjacent to wildlands through pre-suppression and suppression activities.

Production and efficiency of large wildland fire suppression effort: A stochastic frontier analysis

Publications Posted on: February 09, 2016
This study examines the production and efficiency of wildland fire suppression effort. We estimate the effectiveness of suppression resource inputs to produce controlled fire lines that contain large wildland fires using stochastic frontier analysis. Determinants of inefficiency are identified and the effects of these determinants on the daily production of controlled fire line are examined.

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