Projects - Forest Fire
- PI: Dr. Masami Fukuda
- Project title in 2006: Monitoring of Influence of 2004 Alaskan Large Forest Fire on Terrestrial Environment (Joint Research of Forest Fire Impacts on Alaskan Ecosystem between Japanese Researchers and UAF Scientists)
The Alaskan boreal forest is in a highly dangerous condition because of growing forest fires. There are many concerns induced by the increasing forest fire occurrence, that is, various impacts on ecosystems, hydrological systems, and permafrost condition are expected on a larger scale than previously estimated. The major concern among them is the impact on future global warming. A huge amount of carbon dioxide is emitted to the atmosphere during the fire and post-fire. Increased concentration of carbon dioxide by forest fires may cause a rise in summer temperature in the arctic region. Furthermore, the warm climate may lead to more forest fire breaking as the positive feedback in the future. UAF and Japanese scientists are jointly engaging in the better understanding of boreal forest fire impacts in Alaska.
(Image courtesy of MODIS Rapid Response Project at NASA/GSFC)
Figure 1. Alaskan Forest Fire detected by MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on June 30, 2004.
A large forest fire, "Boundary Fire," started northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, on June 21, 2004 by lightning are spread quickly and persisted into late June due to exceptional hot and dry weather conditions.
Figure 2. The Boreal Forest Fire Control Initiative (BFFCI) System.
BFFCI is a system to identify, monitor, analyze and assess the risk potential of boreal wildfires in Alaska and east Siberia. Our aim is to reduce man-made boreal forest fires through establishment of an intelligent information system to support efficient fire fighting activity.
Research structure
- Management Group
- Summarizing the results, and making a quantitative indicator of the forest fire's effect on the permafrost
- Permafrost Group
- Investigation of geomorphological change, drilling survey with depth of 5-10 m, investigation of ground temperature, and exploration of subsurface structure by radar
- Hydrology Group
- Long-term monitoring of hydrological circulation, measurements of snowmelt rate, river water quality, soil flowage, and CO2 emission from ground surface, and investigating the relation between ground temperature, moisture, thermal conductivity and vegetative restoration
- Ecosystem Group
- Investigating ecosystem variation by different scale of forest fires, and measuring the amount of root, organic and inorganic material in the ground
- Fire Detection and Prediction Group
- Forest fire observation from northwestern Canada to eastern Siberia by satellite images, calculating and forecasting fire propagation by IARC-JAXA Information System (IJIS), investigating the relation between damage by fire and insects and spectroscopic characterization of vegetation
Project titles since 2000
- 2000: Detection and Prediction of Land-Atmosphere Interaction Change Induced by Boreal Forest Fire [Abstract] (Dr. Kushida, K., Hokkaido Univ.)
- 2003: Study on Building System for Early Detection and Early Control of Boreal Forest Fire by Utilizing satellite data (Dr. Fukuda, M., Hokkaido Univ.)
- 2004: Boreal Forest Fire Control Initiative (BFFCI) System and Ground Observation in Fairbanks, Alaska (Dr. Fukuda, M., Hokkaido University)
- 2005: Boreal Forest Fire Control Initiative (BFFCI) 2005 (Dr. Fukuda, M., Hokkaido Univ.)
- 2006: Monitoring of Influence of 2004 Alaskan Large Forest Fire on Terrestrial Environment (Joint Research of Forest Fire Impacts on Alaskan Ecosystem between Japanese Researchers and UAF Scientists) (Dr. Fukuda, M., Hokkaido Univ.)
