Chapter 36
An Air Quality Modeling System
Providing Smoke Impact Forecasts
for Health Protection in Southeastern
USA
M. Talat Odman, Ha Ai, Yongtao Hu, Armistead G. Russell,
Ambarish Vaidyanathan and Scott L. Goodrick
Abstract The HiRes-2 system, operational since 2015, provides daily forecasts
of potential prescribed fire impacts on air quality. The system uses the WRF and
CMAQ models for meteorology and air quality computations. A decision tree model
predicts prescribed fire activity based on the weather forecast by analyzing historical
burning patterns under similar meteorological conditions. Prescribed fire emissions
are estimated using land-based but satellite-enhanced fuel load maps, consumption
forecasts, and emission factors derived from laboratory and field measurements.
The DDM-3D feature of CMAQ is used to calculate the impacts of prescribed fire
emissions on pollutant concentrations. The expanded new system, HiRes-X, has
many extensions for dynamic air quality and human exposure management. Daily
forecasts of air quality and prescribed fire impacts are disseminated through an online
interactive tool, which uses webGIS technologies to display the forecasting products
in real time and retrospectively, along with relevant earth observation datasets. These
datasets can be overlapped with geographical and population information to visualize
the air pollution impacts on sensitive places and vulnerable communities.
M. T. Odman (B) · H. Ai · Y. Hu · A. G. Russell
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
30332, USA
e-mail: odman@gatech.edu
H. Ai
e-mail: hai8@gatech.edu
Y. Hu
e-mail: yh29@mail.gatech.edu
A. G. Russell
e-mail: ted.russell@gatech.edu
A. Vaidyanathan
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA
e-mail: dvq3@cdc.gov
S. L. Goodrick
Southern Research Station, US Forest Service, 320 Green Street, Athens, GA 30602, USA
e-mail: sgoodrick@fs.fed.us
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
C. Mensink et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVI,
Springer Proceedings in Complexity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22055-6_36
231
An Air Quality Modeling System
Providing Smoke Impact Forecasts
for Health Protection in Southeastern
USA
M. Talat Odman, Ha Ai, Yongtao Hu, Armistead G. Russell,
Ambarish Vaidyanathan and Scott L. Goodrick
Abstract The HiRes-2 system, operational since 2015, provides daily forecasts
of potential prescribed fire impacts on air quality. The system uses the WRF and
CMAQ models for meteorology and air quality computations. A decision tree model
predicts prescribed fire activity based on the weather forecast by analyzing historical
burning patterns under similar meteorological conditions. Prescribed fire emissions
are estimated using land-based but satellite-enhanced fuel load maps, consumption
forecasts, and emission factors derived from laboratory and field measurements.
The DDM-3D feature of CMAQ is used to calculate the impacts of prescribed fire
emissions on pollutant concentrations. The expanded new system, HiRes-X, has
many extensions for dynamic air quality and human exposure management. Daily
forecasts of air quality and prescribed fire impacts are disseminated through an online
interactive tool, which uses webGIS technologies to display the forecasting products
in real time and retrospectively, along with relevant earth observation datasets. These
datasets can be overlapped with geographical and population information to visualize
the air pollution impacts on sensitive places and vulnerable communities.
M. T. Odman (B) · H. Ai · Y. Hu · A. G. Russell
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
30332, USA
e-mail: odman@gatech.edu
H. Ai
e-mail: hai8@gatech.edu
Y. Hu
e-mail: yh29@mail.gatech.edu
A. G. Russell
e-mail: ted.russell@gatech.edu
A. Vaidyanathan
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA
e-mail: dvq3@cdc.gov
S. L. Goodrick
Southern Research Station, US Forest Service, 320 Green Street, Athens, GA 30602, USA
e-mail: sgoodrick@fs.fed.us
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
C. Mensink et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVI,
Springer Proceedings in Complexity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22055-6_36
231