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- Title
Cold smoke: smoke-induced density currents cause unexpected smoke transport near large wildfires.
- Authors
Lareau, N. P.; Clements, C. B.
- Abstract
First observations of smoke-induced density currents originating from large wildfires are presented. Using a novel mobile Doppler LiDAR and additional in situ measurements we document a deep (~ 2 km) smoke-filled density current that propagates more than 25km at speeds up to 4.5ms-1 near a large forest fire in northern California. Based on these observations we show that the dynamics governing the spread of the smoke layer result from differential solar heating between the smoke-filled and smoke-free portions of the atmospheric boundary layer. A calculation of the theoretical density current speed agrees well with the observed propagation speed. Additional LiDAR and photographic documentation of other smoke-filled density currents demonstrate that these previously unknown phenomena are relatively common near large wildfires and can cause severe and unexpected smoke inundation of populated areas.
- Subjects
DENSITY currents; SMOKE -- Environmental aspects; WILDFIRES; SOLAR heating; ATMOSPHERIC boundary layer
- Publication
Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics Discussions, 2015, Vol 15, Issue 13, p17945
- ISSN
1680-7367
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5194/acpd-15-17945-2015