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Wildland fire emissions and smoke: Development of spatial tools and products for carbon and air quality research and applications

This seminar presentation will review research of Dr. French’s and her team to develop tools and methods for improving our understanding of fire on ecosystems and the atmosphere. Wildland fire causes many impacts on the land, air, and water. Fire emissions, while known to be an important process for the transfer of carbon from the land to the atmosphere, has been poorly represented in carbon models. Similarly, the impacts of fire smoke on air quality is just now being studied in depth to better understand how fire and smoke may be managed to improve human and ecosystem health. Dr. French’s work is focused on the role of fuels (the vegetation that burns during a fire) in the modeling of emissions. She will review this research and put it in the context of fire in the carbon cycle and as a factor in modeling air quality.