Coupled Fire - Atmosphere Modeling of Wildland Fire Spread Using DEVS - FIRE and ARPS 1

Coupled Fire-Atmosphere Modeling of Wildland Fire Spread Using DEVS-FIRE and ARPS 1 Nathan Dahl, Haidong Xue, Xiaolin Hu, and Ming Xue 2 Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149 3 Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 5060, Atlanta, GA 30302 4 Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms, 120 David L. Boren Boulevard, Suite 2500, Norman, OK 73072 5 Corresponding author. Telephone: 405 651 5616; email: [email protected] 6 7 Abstract. This paper introduces a new wildland fire spread prediction system consisting of the raster-based 8 Discrete Event System Specification Fire model (DEVS-FIRE) and the Advanced Regional Prediction System 9 atmospheric model (ARPS). Fire-atmosphere feedbacks are represented by transferring heat from DEVS-FIRE to 10 ARPS as an externally-forced set of surface fluxes and mapping the resulting changes in near-surface wind from 11 ARPS to DEVS-FIRE. A preliminary evaluation of the performance of this coupled model is performed through 12 idealized tests and an examination of the September 2000 Moore Branch Fire; the results conform well with those of 13 other coupled models and are superior to those produced by the uncoupled DEVS-FIRE model, motivating further 14 investigation. 15 16 Additional keywords: discrete event specification; Moore Branch Fire 17 18