A5069329318- Fire effects on ecosystems
- Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
- Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
- Air Quality and Health Impacts
- Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations
- Air Quality Monitoring and Forecasting
- Atmospheric aerosols and clouds
- Wind and Air Flow Studies
- Cryospheric studies and observations
- Aeolian processes and effects
- Climate variability and models
- Fire dynamics and safety research
- Atmospheric Ozone and Climate
- Tropical and Extratropical Cyclones Research
- Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies
- Vehicle emissions and performance
- Climate change and permafrost
- Winter Sports Injuries and Performance
- Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Groundwater and Isotope Geochemistry
- Reservoir Engineering and Simulation Methods
- Lichen and fungal ecology
- Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir analysis
- Transportation and Mobility Innovations
University of Utah
2016-2025
Significance Recent efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have focused on cities due intensive emissions, viable policy levers, and interested stakeholders. Atmospheric observations can be used independently evaluate but suitable networks are sparse. We present a unique decadal record of atmospheric CO 2 from five sites with contrasting urban characteristics that show divergent trends in across city. Comparison population growth reveals nonlinear relationship may reflect how form...
Extra-tropical cyclones, such as 2012 Superstorm Sandy, pose a significant climatic threat to the northeastern United Sates, yet prediction of hydrologic and thermodynamic processes within systems is complicated by their interaction with mid-latitude water patterns they move poleward. Fortunately, evolution these also recorded in stable isotope ratios storm-associated precipitation vapor, isotopic analysis provides constraints on difficult-to-observe cyclone dynamics. During unique...
Abstract Biomass burning is known to contribute large quantities of CO 2 , CO, and PM 2.5 the atmosphere. not only affects area in vicinity fire but may also impact air quality far downwind from fire. The 2007 2012 western U.S. wildfire seasons were characterized by significant activity across much Intermountain West California. In this study, we determined locations wildfire‐derived emissions their aggregate impacts on Salt Lake City, a major urban center fires. To determine influences...
Abstract During the summer of 2015, a number large wildfires burned across Northern California in areas localized topographic relief. Persistent valley smoke hindered fire‐fighting efforts, delayed helicopter operations, and exposed communities to extreme concentrations particulate matter. It was hypothesized that from reduced amount incoming solar radiation reaching ground, which resulted near‐surface cooling, while aerosols warming aloft. As result increased inversion‐like conditions,...
Top-down, data-driven models possess ample power to improve the accuracy of bottom-up carbon dioxide (CO2) emission inventories, and more work is needed explore merger top-down estimates better inform metrics used monitor global CO2 fluxes. Here we present a Bayesian inverse modeling framework over Salt Lake City, Utah, which utilizes available inventories establish synthetic data simulation aimed at exploring model uncertainties. Prescribing high-resolution, urban-scale product (Hestia) as...
By producing a first-of-its-kind, decadal-scale wildfire plume rise climatology in the Western U.S. and Canada, we identify trends toward enhanced top heights, aerosol loading aloft, near-surface smoke injection throughout American West. Positive significant suggest growing impact of US wildfires on air quality at local to continental scales support notion that may have an increasing regional climate. Overlap identified with regions emissions burn severity suggests link climate driven...
Abstract Seasonal snowmelt from the Wasatch Mountains of northern Utah, USA, is a primary control on water availability for metropolitan Front, surrounding agricultural valleys, and Great Salt Lake (GSL). Prolonged drought, increased evaporation due to warming temperatures, sustained domestic consumption have caused GSL levels reach record low stands in 2021 2022, resulting exposure dry lakebed sediment. When dust emitted deposited adjacent snowpack, snow darkened, accelerated. Regular...
The deposition of dust on snow accelerates melt by perturbing albedo, directly darkening the surface and indirectly enhancing grain growth. process impacts hydrology shifting runoff timing magnitude. Dust has been documented in Wasatch Mountains, snowmelt from which accounts for up to 80% water supply Salt Lake City, UT, but impact not yet investigated. Here, we present a case study event observed (13–14th April, 2017), sampled coincidentally air at an instrumented high elevation site...
Heating from wildfires adds buoyancy to the overlying air, often producing plumes that vertically distribute fire emissions throughout atmospheric column over fire. The height of rising wildfire plume is a complex function size wildfire, heat flux, geometry, and conditions, which can make simulating rises difficult with coarser-scale models. To determine altitude emission injection, several rise parameterizations have been developed in an effort estimate rise. Previous work has indicated...
Urban environments are characterized by pronounced spatiotemporal heterogeneity, which can present sampling challenges when utilizing conventional greenhouse gas (GHG) measurement systems. In Salt Lake City, Utah, a GHG instrument was deployed on light rail train car that continuously traverses the Valley (SLV) through range of urban typologies. CO2 measurements from were used within Bayesian inverse modeling framework to constrain emissions across SLV during fall 2015. The primary...
Abstract. Bottom-up accounting methods of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions can provide high-resolution estimates at a global scale; however, the necessary in situ observations to verify these are limited coverage. Space-based CO2 Earth’s atmosphere expand this coverage near-global scale inform cycle science and record emission trends. This work applied an observing system simulation experiment (OSSE) characterize flux information contained “Snapshot Area Map” (SAM) measurements from Orbiting...
Abstract Increases in wildfire activity and the resulting impacts have prompted development of high-resolution behavior models for forecasting fire spread. Recent progress using satellites to detect locations further provides opportunity use measurements toward improving spread forecasts from numerical through data assimilation. This work develops a physics-informed approach inferring history satellite measurements, providing necessary information initialize coupled atmosphere–wildfire...
Abstract. Despite the need for researchers to understand terrestrial biospheric carbon fluxes account cycle feedbacks and predict future CO2 concentrations, knowledge of these at regional scale remains poor. This is particularly true in mountainous areas, where complex meteorology lack observations lead large uncertainties fluxes. Yet regions are often significant forest cover biomass found – i.e., areas that have potential serve as sinks. As carried out it imperative they properly...
Abstract One of the primary challenges associated with evaluating smoke models is availability observations. The limited density traditional air quality monitoring networks makes wildfire transport challenging, particularly over regions where plumes exhibit significant spatiotemporal variability. In this study, we analyzed dispersion for 2018 Pole Creek and Bald Mountain Fires, which were located in central Utah. Smoke simulations generated using a coupled fire‐atmosphere model,...
A microscale wildfire model, QES-Fire, that dynamically couples the fire front to winds was developed using a simplified physics rate of spread (ROS) kinematic plume-rise model and mass-consistent wind solver. The is three-dimensional heat fluxes field while being more computationally efficient than other coupled models. calculates potential velocity scaled by ROS model’s flux. Distinct plumes are merged multiscale plume-merging methodology can efficiently represent complex fronts. plume...
Abstract An ever increasing community of earth system modelers is incorporating new physical processes into numerical models. This trend facilitated by advancements in computational resources, improvements simulation skill, and the desire to build simulators that represent water cycle with greater fidelity. In this quest develop a state‐of‐the‐art model, we coupled HydroGeoSphere (HGS), 3‐D control‐volume finite element surface variably saturated subsurface flow model includes...
Forecasting fire growth, plume rise and smoke impacts on air quality remains a challenging task. Wildland fires dynamically interact with the atmosphere, which can impact behavior, rises, dispersion. For understory fires, propagation is driven by winds attenuated forest canopy. However, most numerical weather prediction models providing meteorological forcing for are unable to resolve canopy winds. In this study, an improved model parameterization was implemented within coupled...
Producing high-resolution near-real-time forecasts of fire behavior and smoke impact that are useful for air quality management requires accurate initialization the location. One common representation progression is through arrival time, which defines time arrives at a given Estimating critical initializing location within coupled fire-atmosphere models. We present new method utilizes machine learning to estimate from satellite data in form burning/not burning/no rasters. The proposed...
Wintertime episodes of high aerosol concentrations occur frequently in urban and agricultural basins valleys worldwide. These often arise following development persistent cold-air pools (PCAPs) that limit mixing modify chemistry. While field campaigns targeting either basin meteorology or wintertime pollution chemistry have been conducted, coupling between interconnected chemical meteorological processes remains an insufficiently studied research area. Gaps understanding the coupled...
Abstract Mountain environments are profoundly impacted by the deposition of mineral dust, yet degree to which this material is far-traveled or intra-regional typically unclear. This distinction fundamental model future changes in mountain geoecosystems resulting from climatic anthropogenic forcing dust source regions. We address question with a network 17 passive samplers installed primarily locations Utah, Nevada, and Idaho between October, 2020 October 2021. For each collector, rate was...
Abstract Seasonal snowpacks in mountain drainages of the Great Salt Lake Basin (GSLB), western United States, are primary surface water supply to regional agriculture, metropolitan Wasatch Front, and terminal Lake. Spring dust emissions from eastern result a dust‐darkened GSLB snowpack, locally accelerating snowmelt relative dust‐free conditions. Such acceleration has been linked streamflow forecasting errors adjacent Colorado River Basin, but snow darkening impacts within largely...