Kochanski, Adam K., University of Utah, Jonathan D. Beezley, Jan Mandel, and
Minjeong Kim, University of Colorado, Denver
We describe two recent
additions to WRF coupled with a fire spread model. Fire propagation is strongly
dependent on fuel moisture, which in turn depends on the history of the
atmosphere. We have implemented a equilibrium time-lag model of fuel moisture
driven by WRF variables. The code allows the user to specify fuel parameters,
with the defaults calibrated to the Canadian fire danger rating system for
10-hour fuel. The moisture model can run coupled with the atmosphere-fire
model, or offline from WRF output to equilibrate the moisture over a period of
time and to provide initial moisture conditions for a coupled atmosphere-fire-moisture
simulation. The fire model also inserts smoke tracers into WRF-Chem to model
the transport of fire emissions. The coupled model is available from
OpenWFM.org. An earlier version of the fire model coupled with atmosphere is a
part of WRF release.