Coupled Atmosphere-Fire Simulations of Fireflux: Impacts of Model Resolution on Model Performance

Abstract

The ability to forecast grass fire spread could be of a great importance for agencies making decisions about prescribed burns. However, the usefulness of the models used for fire-spread predictions is limited by the time required for completing the coupled atmosphere-fire simulations. In this study we analyze the sensitivity of a coupled model with respect to the vertical resolution of the atmospheric grid and the resolution of fire mesh that both affect computational performance of the model. Based on the observations of the plume properties recorded during the FireFlux experiment (Clements et al., 2007), we try to establish the optimal model configuration that provides realistic results for the least computational expense.