Abstract View

Aerosol Formation and Ejection via Pyrocumulonimbus Clouds in the British Columbia Fires of Late Summer 2017

ALEXANDER JOSEPHSON, Eunmo Koo, Daniel K Thompson, Jon Reisner, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Abstract Number: 402
Working Group: Combustion

Abstract
On August 12-13, 2017 the fires raging across central British Columbia and northern Washington created five pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds which injected high volumes of pyro-aerosols into the upper stratosphere. In this presentation we investigate some of the causes of these pyroCb clouds through a series of high-fidelity simulations. These simulations include ground-fire simulations using FIRETEC which captures the fire spread and generation of pyro-aerosols at the ground level with conditions unique to the environment of British Columbia in the late 2017 summer. Results from these simulations are used to inform a larger HIGRAD simulation which captures the formation of multiple plumes and transport of aerosols from the fire to the stratosphere through these plumes. With these simulations, we are able to identify some of key characteristics of these fires which led to this injection of aerosols into the stratosphere and thus increased drastically the global impact of these fires.