Pyro-atmosphere Infrared Sounder: Monitoring Fire Weather Conditions with a Sub-Kilometer Spatial-Resolution Hyperspectral Infrared Sounder (PIRS)

Wildfire results in tremendous economic loss in the Continental United States, and the frequency of occurrence is increasing in a warming global climate. We propose to perform unprecedented measurements using a new hyperspectral infrared sounder (PIRS) on aircraft campaigns to demonstrate the capabilities of high spatially resolved temperature (T) and humidity (q) soundings on improvement in fire weather monitoring and forecasts during pre- and active-fire stages. We will obtain consultation and advices from Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), to refine our instrument measurement requirements as well as data products for improvement of monitoring fire meteorology and atmospheric conditions for fire sciences and management. Remote sensing datasets used for fire weather monitoring are mainly from imagers, e.g., MODIS or GOES, which provide 2-D surface information such as surface temperature and vegetation types. However, 3-D information of the state of the atmosphere is essential in fire weather monitoring and forecasting. For example, synoptic scale weather patterns are highly related to development of extreme fire events. Coupling of the planetary boundary (PBL) during extreme fire events with mid-tropospheric moisture advection may induce pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb), causing fire suppression activity to be more difficult and unpredictable due to the turbulent atmosphere. Therefore, fire meteorology is not only the study of how meteorological conditions influence fire initiation and development, but also how the wildfire can alter atmospheric circulation and provide feedback to fire development. This information helps assist in fire management and public safety. The Pyro-atmosphere InfraRed Sounder (PIRS) uses new grating spectrometer optics and detector technology developed under NASA's Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) to achieve a major size reduction in infrared sounding from an aircraft, achieving lower cost for the instrument development and flight operations. PIRS exists as a TRL 5 brassboard and is well suited to implementation in an aircraft. PIRS can perform three measurements with unprecedented flexible spatial resolution (~15-470 m) and wide swath (~20 km at 8.5 km atltitude) from an aircraft platform: (1) 3-D sounding of temperature (T) and specific humidity (q) in the atmosphere from the PBL to the upper troposphere, (2) Carbon Monoxide (CO) measurement for monitoring transport of polluted air, and (3) estimates of fire radiative power (FRP) in imaging mode at 15 m resolution. We aim to achieve the following goals to help wildfire prediction and management: - (G1) Obtain atmospheric thermodynamic structures (T and q profiles) in "sounding" mode with a wide swath (~20 km at 8.5 km flight altitude) and high spatial resolution (470 m horizontal and ~300-500 m vertical) and FRP in "imaging" mode (15 m horizontal) to monitor the initiation and development of wildland fire events. - (G2) Map instantaneously the atmospheric thermodynamic conditions to the initiation of pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) for mitigation of hazards during fire suppression activities. - (G3) Measure the CO distribution, an indicator of air quality and smoke spread, and monitor its transport relative to the atmospheric thermodynamic conditions. The proposal is to answer ROSES A-53 1.2.1 Pre-Fire and 1.2.2 Active-Fire Topics.

Enhances the capabilities for existing science instruments for monitoring pre-fire, active-fire, and post-fire situations, reduces the power and mass of these instruments, and enables unprecedented observations in support of wildfire science through distributed observing systems and the information technologies needed for their support.

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