Visualization of wildfire simulations

The paper considers how Los Alamos researchers are partnering with Los Angeles County Fire Department, United States Forest Service, and Kennedy Space Center personnel for wildfire simulation studies. Fire behavior is highly dependent upon winds, temperatures and moisture. It is crucial to predict these weather parameters over the small regions where they directly affect a fire. Weather conditions in these small regions are driven by dynamic weather patterns such as cold fronts and high-pressure systems that develop over much larger geographic areas. The Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS), originally developed at Colorado State University, predicts these variable weather patterns. The RAMS model uses measurements from weather stations all over the United States to predict winds, temperatures, and moisture into the near future. To model the interactions between winds and fire, Higrad has been combined with a simple fire behavior model (Behave) from the US Forest Service. This combined modeling system (Higrad/Behave) is the first step in predicting the actual progress and heat release of a wildfire. Two fires have been simulated using this combined model.