Scientists are working on ways to better anticipate the pathways—and health dangers—of drifting wildfire smoke.
Better satellite coverage of wildfires and improved climate models are giving scientists a more accurate view of smoke plumes as they drift across the country. These kinds of advances, they say, can help provide earlier warnings to residents endangered by wildfire smoke.
The directions taken by massive smoke plumes are often dictated by the whims of the weather and, in California, steered by the complex terrain of valleys and mountains. Still, there was one system that kept tracking the Camp Fire smoke as it drifted toward San Francisco. But the model gave the scientists who had worked on it a glimpse of a system that might be perfected in future years. “A lot of things needed to be sort of built from scratch,” explained Eric James, a senior researcher with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Chow later helped write the first report on the performance of HRRR, which has been refined and enlarged. It will soon be aided by a new geostationary satellite, GOES-18, which can provide a more constant view of fire-prone areas than two earlier, polar-orbiting satellites could. 'Still a lot to uncover' The next step will be to use the improved tracking system as part of a new study to document the health problems and expenses caused by drifting wildfire smoke. Its researchers hope to develop more reliable ways to warn and prepare people in its pathway.
“We don’t have a good understanding of how to reduce risk across populations and among people who are very susceptible, either medically or due to social circumstances,” Thakur said.
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