| Subsidiary Authors | Koziol, B, Billmire, M, Endsley, AK, Scheinerman, NYK, Jenkins, L, Miller, ME, Ottmar, R, Prichard, S |
| Abstract | As carbon modeling tools become more comprehensive, spatial
data are needed to improve quantitative maps of carbon emissions from fire.
The Wildland Fire Emissions Information System (WFEIS) provides mapped
estimates of carbon emissions from historical forest fires in the United States
through a web browser. WFEIS improves access to data and provides a consistent
approach to estimating emissions at landscape, regional, and continental
scales. The system taps into data and tools developed by the U.S. Forest Service
to describe fuels, fuel loadings, and fuel consumption and merges information
from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and National Aeronautics and Space
Administration on fire location and timing. Currently, WFEIS provides web
access to Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) burned
area for North America and U.S. fire-perimeter maps from the Monitoring
Trends in Burn Severity products from the USGS, overlays them on 1-km fuel
maps for the United States, and calculates fuel consumption and emissions with
an open-source version of the Consume model. Mapped fuel moisture is derived
from daily meteorological data from remote automated weather stations. In
addition to tabular output results, WFEIS produces multiple vector and raster
formats. This paper provides an overview of the WFEIS system, including the
web-based system functionality and datasets used for emissions estimates.
WFEIS operates on the web and is built using open-source software components
that work with open international standards such as keyhole markup
language (KML). Examples of emissions outputs from WFEIS are presented
showing that the system provides results that vary widely across the many
ecosystems of North America and are consistent with previous emissions
modeling estimates and products.
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