Estimating Carbon Emissions from Wildfire in North America

Project Description

The North American Carbon Program(link is external) is designed to resolve uncertainties in understanding and managing the carbon cycle of North America. As carbon modeling tools become more comprehensive and spatially oriented, accurate datasets to spatially quantify carbon emissions from fire are needed.

For this project, Dr. Nancy French of the Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI) extended her NASA New Investigator Program-funded research to team up specialists at the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station’s Fire and Environmental Research Applications (FERA) team.

The FERA team provided information for mapping fire-derived carbon emissions by adapting existing Forest Service fire information products and tools using NASA data and products.

The project had two components:

1. Development of new and accurate user-friendly products for estimating fire emissions at regional scales that are consistent across international borders based on NASA-derived datasets and models and the adaptation of FERA information products and models, and
2. Development of an effective process for accessing and using new products and emissions models through an online information system (Internet Mapping Service [IMS]).

The U.S. Forest Service developed the Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS), to describe fire fuels across North America, and Consume 3.0, a model for estimating fuel consumption and emissions. Intended primarily for applications of fire effects, these tools hold potential for quantifying carbon emissions to better understand the implications of fire to carbon cycling and carbon management.

The project built on PI French’s NASA new investigator program (NIP) used remote sensing for quantifying the variability in fuel consumption and develop FERA tools for use in quantifying regional to continental-scale fire emissions. Carbon assessment tools developed through the North American Carbon Program, such as Carbon Tracker, provided a context for development of datasets and methods for production of user-accessible information products.

Purpose and Scope

The goal of the project was to develop a prototype information system with the help of user input for disseminating improved products for modeling and estimating fire emissions across North America. This was done by:

• Developing new and accurate user-friendly products for estimating fire emissions at regional scales that are consistent across international borders based on NASA-derived datasets and models and the adaptation of FERA information products and models.
• Providing an effective process for accessing and using new products and emissions models through an on-line information system (Internet Mapping Service [IMS]).

Methods

• Developed Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) fuelbeds for the conterminous United States (CONUS) and Alaska.
• Upgraded the existing fuelbed map for the CONUS, and built one for Alaska.
• Provided a geospatial data layer of fuel loadings for use in the decision support system that will allow users to calculate carbon emissions from fires anywhere in North America.

Implementation

Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) fuelbeds have been incorporated into the Wildland Fire Emissions Information System (WFEIS).

Key Findings

FERA’s contribution to this research project improved the representation of canopy fuels in the existing 1-km Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) by using MODIS vegetation. The FCCS and Consume have been valuable for forest managers and are here being used to assess fuel consumption and emissions across broad spatial scales and serve out results as mapped spatial data. Running WFEIS allows fire researchers, forest and smoke managers, and atmospheric scientists to view how past fires have contributed to emissions that influence air quality and carbon cycling. The amount and location of emissions can be assessed and visualized using the output data created within WFEIS.

Project Deliverables

Wildland Fire Emissions Information System (WFEIS) v. 0.5

WFEIS v0.5 Emissions Calculator
Wildland Fire Emissions Information System Fuels Mapping