Extreme firebrand transport by atmospheric waves in wildfires

Abstract

In wildfires, burning pieces of ember-firebrands-are carried downstream by wind. At the time of landing, these firebrands can start secondary fires far away from the main burning unit. This phenomenon is called spotting and the secondary fires are referred to as spot fires. Here, we first present numerical evidence that atmospheric traveling waves can increase the spotting distance by at least an order of magnitude compared to unidirectional wind conditions. We then present theoretical results explaining this numerical observation. In particular, we show that the firebrand's motion can synchronize with the traveling wave, leading to a surf-like motion for some firebrand particles. This delays the firebrand's landing, making extreme spotting distances possible. This physical phenomena helps explain the discrepancy between previous theoretical estimates of maximum spotting distance and much larger spotting distances observed empirically. We derive new analytical expressions for the landing time and landing distance of the firebrands.